Below, in the body of this post, links are provided to sites at the IRS and US Treasury Department to research or report fraudulent calls or emails.

The text and links are copied directly from web pages to which the links will take you. Quoting from a portion of what’s below:

• “If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue.
• “If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov.
• “You can file a complaint using the FTC Complaint Assistant; choose “Other” and then “Imposter Scams.” If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.

“Remember, too, the IRS does not use unsolicited email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to http://www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box.”

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We have recently been receiving threatening phone calls (on a cell phone number, in this case) from what is purported to be the IRS. The voice is digital. It claims that the phone call is a final warning before the IRS sues you. It them gives you a phone number with a Washington, DC area code to return the call.

If you call back, they ask you for your Social Security Number, among other things.

NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, DRIVERS LICENSE NUMBER OR CREDIT CARD NUMBERS UNLESS YOU ARE CERTAIN TO WHOM YOU ARE SPEAKING!

If you are told to call a number for the IRS, your bank, or any other institution or company which then asks YOU for information THEY should have, call back at a number you know is correct, such as on the back of your credit/debit card, or at the IRS.gov website.

• ==> IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting
• Phishing and Other Schemes Using the IRS Name
• Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot Suspicious Calls

More info and links below the jump.

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