Oregon taxpayers have been receiving phone calls from scammers pretending to be with the IRS or Internal Revenue Service. KLCC’s Briana Friden has the story.
“Hello this call is officially a final notice from IRS.”
The computer voice tries to create a false sense of urgency to persuade people into revealing personal and financial information that can be used for fraud.
“You had tried to do a fraud with the IRS internal revenue service and we are taking a legal action and we are issuing an arrest warrant on your name.”
Oregon Department of Revenue’s spokesman, Bob Estabrook, says the agency will always send a letter to a taxpayer before making a phone call, and will never threaten a taxpayer over the phone.
“If you feel uncomfortable in the call, if it seems like there is something that is not right about that call, get out of that conversation," Estabrook tells KLCC. "Don’t feel that you have to make a bad decision or make a decision in the moment.”
Estabrook says the people who perpetrate these calls have sophisticated methods to trick people, such as Washington DC area codes, but they are still not legitimate calls. He advises contacting the IRS’s published phone number if concerned or threatened.
Scam phone calls should also be reported to the Department of Justice’s Consumer protection hotline.
Copyright 2017, KLCC.
