{"id":65702,"date":"2015-07-09T07:16:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T12:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=65702"},"modified":"2015-07-09T07:16:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T12:16:41","slug":"irs-warns-taxpayers-of-new-tax-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2015\/07\/09\/irs-warns-taxpayers-of-new-tax-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS warns taxpayers of new tax scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internal Revenue Service information<\/i><\/p>\n

COLUMBUS — The Internal Revenue Service has issued a consumer alert to help taxpayers protect themselves from scammers posing as IRS employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you receive a threatening call out of the blue from someone who says you must pay your IRS tax bill immediately or else, assume it\u2019s a scam,\u201d said IRS spokesman Jennifer Jenkins.\u00a0\u201cBona fide IRS collections staff advise taxpayers of their right to challenge or appeal a tax bill. An IRS employee should not demand immediate payment using a prepaid debit card or wire transfer, either. Instead, he or she should offer several payment options, to include an installment plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IRS says as more people have learned of the scam calls, criminals have started mailing, faxing or emailing falsified forms, notices and letters to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\"IRS<\/a>\u201cThe phone scam remains a threat, but taxpayers need to know that the phone scam isn\u2019t the only game that scammers are playing this summer,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cLately, they\u2019re sending fake documents by mail and electronically to trick taxpayers into sending money or \u2018verifying\u2019 personal information that is then used to commit tax refund fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. \u201cEach year, thousands of taxpayers report they\u2019ve received emails claiming to be from the IRS.\u00a0 Don\u2019t reply, open any attachments or click on any links. Instead, forward the email to phishing@irs.gov<\/a> and then delete it,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n

The IRS advises taxpayers to scrutinize any written correspondence received. \u201cJust because the IRS website address is listed on a letter or fax, that\u2019s no guarantee that what you\u2019ve received is legit,\u201d said Jenkins. Fraudsters have been known to modify legitimate IRS letters. Taxpayers who receive a suspicious-looking letter, notice or form via mail or fax from the IRS should go to the IRS home page<\/a> and search on the letter, notice or form number. Information can also be found at Understanding Your Notice or Letter<\/a> or by searching Forms and Pubs<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the letter or fax is really from the IRS, you\u2019ll find instructions on how to respond to it on the IRS website. If you don\u2019t find information about your IRS notice on IRS.gov<\/a>, or if the instructions in your notice and the IRS website don\u2019t mesh, contact the IRS at 800.829.1040. If you determine that the notice you received is not legitimate,\u00a0contact TIGTA<\/a> and report the scam attempt to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov<\/a>,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n

More information on reporting tax scams is available at IRS.gov<\/a>. Additional tax scam information is available on IRS social media sites, including YouTube<\/a> and Tumblr<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Internal Revenue Service information COLUMBUS — The Internal Revenue Service has issued a consumer alert to help taxpayers protect themselves from scammers posing as IRS employees. \u201cIf you receive a threatening call out of the blue from someone who says you must pay your IRS tax bill immediately or else, assume it\u2019s a scam,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 02:53:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}