Attorney General Warns of IRS Scam

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is reminding citizens to be on guard against a phone scam in which a caller pretends to work for the Internal Revenue Service and threatens residents if they don’t pay a certain sum using a pre-paid debit card or money order.

“Our Office first issued warnings about this scam back in December, and we continue to get calls from people who are being harassed by people posing as IRS agents . We’ve had more than 150 complaints from citizens since the end of May, and because of that, we felt it was important to remind people to take every precaution they can and hang up on these scammers.”
 
Morrisey said the callers often use aggressive language and threaten consumers with everything from losing their driver’s license or business license to jail time if the money isn’t paid immediately.
 
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), roughly 90,000 Americans have filed complaints about this scam.

Morrisey said citizens who believe they may have a tax issue should contact the IRS directly, rather than answer questions from someone who calls or emails them out of the blue.

If someone claiming to be an IRS representative requesting payment contacts you, immediately hang up and call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. If you owe taxes, IRS workers can help you get those resolved. If a fraudulent IRS representative contacts you, please contact the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Office at 1-800-368-8808.