Clallam and Jefferson County sheriff’s offices have received numerous reports of residents receiving phone calls from individuals claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service.
“This is a recurring phone scam and the Sheriff’s Office advises residents to immediately hang up if they receive unsolicited phone calls,” the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said.
Calls had been received from Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim, the office said.
Detective Ryan Menday of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said reports had come from “all over the county.
“This is common this time of year,” he said. “They target everybody” in the nation.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office also reported the scam, saying Friday it had received dozens of telephone calls in 24 hours from county residents concerned about phone calls from people purporting to be IRS agents, with a demand for payment of “back taxes” with scare tactics that mention increased fines, summons to court and imprisonment.
The phone calls are fraudulent, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said.
The IRS says that it will not:
■ Call you to demand immediate payment. The IRS will not call you if you owe taxes without first sending you a bill in the mail.
■ Demand that you pay taxes and not allow you to question or appeal the amount you owe.
■ Require that you pay your taxes a certain way. For instance, require that you pay with a prepaid debit card.
■ Ask for your credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
■ Threaten to bring in police or other agencies to arrest you for not paying.
Scams have cost victims more than $23 million, according to the IRS, which said the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, has received reports of about 736,000 scam contacts since October 2013 with nearly 4,550 victims.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said the scams are unsolicited calls in which thieves call taxpayers claiming to be IRS officials and demand that the victim pay a bogus tax bill.
“They con the victim into sending cash, usually through a prepaid debit card or wire transfer,” the office said in a news release.
“They may also leave ‘urgent’ callback requests through phone ‘robo-calls’ or via phishing email.”
Scammers will try to scare their victims, with many threatening to arrest, deport or revoke the license of their victim if they don’t get the money.
Scams use caller ID spoofing, altering caller ID to make it look like the IRS or another agency is calling, deputies said.
They use IRS titles and fake badge numbers to appear legitimate and may use the victim’s name, address and other personal information to make the call sound official, they added.
“Cons try new tricks all the time,” the release said.
“Some schemes provide an actual IRS address where they tell the victim to mail a receipt for the payment they make.
“Others use emails that contain a fake IRS document with a phone number or an email address for a reply.”
The Treasury Department will take an online report if you have been the victim of an IRS scam at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-IRSscamreport.
