Once again, area residents are reporting to us that they’ve received calls from someone that claims to be with the Internal Revenue Service, and has threatened to have them arrested if they don’t send money.  We recently spoke with a woman whose mother had been called by these scammers, and they left her in tears.

It seems they aggressively told the victim that she owed somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 from her 2003 taxes and unless she sent them money immediately, they would have a law enforcement official come to her home and arrest her.

We can’t stress this strongly enough: It’s NOT the IRS calling and making threats, it’s simply a con artist, otherwise known as a scammer, a thief, a crook, whatever you wanna call them.

Hang up on them.  Period.  They can’t do anything to you – all YOU have to do is refuse to be taken advantage of.  Hang up.

Do NOT send them, or give them access to your money under any circumstance.

Do NOT give them personal private information such as your social security number, or any credit or debit card numbers.  Do NOT purchase a Green Dot card and put money on it, then give them the number.

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: The IRS does NOT contact you by phone; they don’t contact you through e-mail or text.  If you actually do have an issue with your account you will be contacted through U.S. Mail.  They also will not threaten you with arrest. 

Often, scammers will try to make people think they’re legitimate, by using the names of real businesses and companies; anyone can say they belong to any organization but that doesn’t mean that they actually DO.  And that includes the IRS.

Spread the word; inform your friends and family members about this scam especially those you know who are up in years.  Con artists often target the elderly with these sort of scams.

The best defense against being taken advantage of, is to be AWARE of what’s going on.