{"id":90027,"date":"2017-07-10T07:27:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T12:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=90027"},"modified":"2017-07-10T07:27:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T12:27:53","slug":"a-g-dewine-warns-ohioans-of-irs-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/07\/10\/a-g-dewine-warns-ohioans-of-irs-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"A-G DeWine warns Ohioans of IRS scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n<p>COLUMBUS &#8212; Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine warned that his office logged about 600 reports of \u201cIRS\u201d scams in June, more than in any other month this year.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_52811\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52811\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Mike-DeWine-headshot-200px-6-2014.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"314\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-52811\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Mike DeWine<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The scam generally begins with a call claiming the recipient is in trouble with the IRS and must call a certain phone number to avoid arrest or legal action. People who respond to the call are asked to pay immediately, typically by purchasing a gift card and reading the card numbers over the phone.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office has received more than 1,800 reports of the scam in 2017. Most consumers haven\u2019t lost any money, but some have reported losses ranging from $100 to over $5,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one wants to get a call saying you\u2019re in trouble with the IRS,\u201d Attorney General DeWine said. \u201cScam artists rely on that fear and surprise. We just remind people that the real IRS isn\u2019t going to call you unexpectedly and demand that you pay immediately over the phone. The best thing to do, if you\u2019re getting these calls, is to hang up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Con artists may tell people an arrest warrant has been issued in their name, that they\u2019re receiving a \u201cfinal notice\u201d from the IRS, or that they will be prosecuted for tax fraud if they don\u2019t pay. The calls may appear to come from a Chicago (773) area code number, a Washington, D.C. (202) area code number, or a variety of other phone numbers, but generally the calls are placed over the Internet and the number that appears on the consumer\u2019s caller ID does not reveal the true origin of the call.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To avoid phone scams:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t trust threatening callers.<\/strong>\u00a0Those who receive an unexpected phone call from someone who threatens to arrest them for not paying taxes should be very skeptical, especially if they never received any written notice.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid making payments over the phone.<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t trust someone who demands that people pay immediately over the phone using a gift card or prepaid card, or who demands that people send a wire transfer. These are preferred payment methods for scam artists. The real IRS won\u2019t demand that people pay using one of these specific methods.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t respond to calls from unknown numbers.<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t interact with the caller, and don\u2019t dial the number left on the phone. If the caller leaves a voicemail claiming to be from the IRS, don\u2019t call the number left in the message. Instead, those concerned they may owe a tax debt should call a number they know belongs to the IRS.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t rely on caller ID.<\/strong>\u00a0Scam artists can make it appear as if their calls are coming from a local number or from a 202 (Washington, D.C.) area code number, even when they are located in another country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check into call-blocking options.<\/strong>\u00a0Check with phone carriers and third-party services to determine whether call-blocking services could help stop unwanted calls.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Report potential scams to the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office at\u00a0<a href=\"x-webdoc:\/\/ED625923-3CFD-49B1-8802-5DDB38F51EC3\/www.ohioprotects.org\">www.OhioProtects.org<\/a>\u00a0or by calling 800.282.0515.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted information COLUMBUS &#8212; Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine warned that his office logged about 600 reports of \u201cIRS\u201d scams in June, more than in any other month this year. The scam generally begins with a call claiming the recipient is in trouble with the IRS and must call a certain phone number to avoid [&hellip;]<\/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-90027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 04:47:01","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\/90027","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=90027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}