IRS Scam Reports Keep Increasing

Several area law enforcement agencies, including the regional office of the New York State Attorney General, are getting more and more complaints about intimidating calls from scammers pretending to be from the IRS and the problem is expected to get worse as the tax filing deadline draws near.

In just the past week or so, there have been numerous reports from the Binghamton area as well as Chenango, Tioga and Delaware Counties of the calls to residents threatening legal action if they don’t provide personal information to get a debit card in order to pay off a tax debt or, sometimes telling them they have a refund coming but need to provide personal information in order to be paid.

In some cases, individuals have reported getting multiple calls in just one day.

The IRS never contacts anyone first by phone.  Any issue is always brought to a resident’s attention through mailed correspondence.

Anyone getting the calls should never share any personal information and should save any phone numbers given or showing up on caller ID.  Residents can report the scam to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484 or online at www.tigta.gov.

Information about scams that are out there can be found on the IRS website, www.irs.gov and the Federal Trade Commission site at www.ftc.gov.