Very likely a complete scam and safe to ignore. If it is legitimate you’ll get a bill in the mail, but even then you need to independently verify it. Scammers have gotten incredibly good at figuring out ways to scare people into sending them money. They are not above mailing you a fake invoice.
There are dozens of phone scams like this going on. I saw a commercial sponsored by the IRS warning people of them but I can’t find an online link.
The key seems to be receiving a phone call threatening arrest and that they will take your credit card information over the phone to clear the charge immediately.
Somehow, they’ve also been able to convince people the only payment they can make is to go buy gift cards and call back with that number instead of personal credit card information. My guess is once you buy the gift card and give it away, there is no way to stop that payment.
In addition to claims that the caller is the IRS and looking to collect, here are others I am aware of:
You missed jury duty.
You have an outstanding warrant.
Fake red light camera ticket.
The lawsuit you were defending settled and you need to pay the settlement.
Fake billing invoices.
What the scammers around here do is call you, make threatening claims that if you don’t pay these back taxes right now, the IRS is going to arrest you and you’ll lose everything.
Then, they tell you to run down to CVS, get a prepaid cash card, and call them back with the number.
This is not true. One of my brother’s clients had moved from CA to NV. He filed a change of address, got a DrLic, etc in Nevada. The CA FTB noticed he had stopped filing taxes in CA (no duh!) and then started sending notices to him- at his old CA address. (not bothering to check any other sources). Of course he did not respond. Then they filed taxes for him, as he had a professional license in CA. (He had never been self-employed, however). Thus they made up a bogus tax liability. They then put liens and levies. Then a Collection agency, who was smart enough to check other records (Like Lexis/Nexis) found him at his new address and began calling him.
Of course my Bro was able to get all taxes, liens, levy’s etc dismissed, but the credit report and debt took years to get fixed.
Yes, the IRS doesnt do this crap, but state agencies do. And they also will dredge up a 10 yo ticket and the first thing you’ll know about it is that your home state says your Drivers License is frozen until you pay it. Who here has 10yo records to prove that it was paid back then?
The IRS phone call scam is really sweeping my area. These are just a few of the incidents from our local police dispatch center from yesterday. Note that the reports are coming in one after another at a rapid rate.
I don’t know about the whole state, but I work with the student loan collections office of a state university and they turn accounts over for collections all the time. They have several collection agencies they work with.
Also, the accounts aren’t ‘sold’ to the collection agency, they are turned over for collections and can be recalled at any time.
Depends on how it’s handled. Accounts can be sold, usually at a discount, at which point the agency gets to keep whatever they can shake out of the debtor.
Or they can be sent to a collections agency, who will receive a fee for any recoveries, but will not keep the rest of the proceeds.
Thanks, TroutMan but that’s not the one I was thinking of. Saw one the other night, had a man and woman in it discussing where to go on vacation, what to spend money on. Then he starts working the phone with the old IRS scam and she is gleefully excited on the couch with her little foo foo dog.
Ends warning folks to watch out for the scam.
I’ve only seen it the one time and since it not yet out on YouTube, I am thinking it may be a fairly new public service announcement from them.
God, even in my apology post about typos I made a typo. I’m really not a moron, I promise. My teacher wife hopefully will never see this thread or I’ll be in trouble!
I’d say that any unsolicited phone call, fax or email purporting to be from a government agency is fake. Government agencies haven’t yet learned to use phones, fax or email.
