BPD issued a warning on Tuesday about an aggressive phone scam targeting the elderly in the community. Pretending to be members of the IRS, the scammers threaten to arrest people for failing to pay back taxes. Please read the following press release from the BPD and pass it on to any seniors in your life! If you are a senior, don’t be scammed by that phoney baloney!
On Tuesday, February 16, 2016, the Boston Police Department received several reports relative to an aggressive phone scam targeting elderly community members. According to the reports, individuals claiming to work for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are threatening to arrest people for failing to pay back taxes to the IRS. While these dangerous and cunning con artists can sound convincing and credible, they are far, far from it. If you receive such a call, don’t allow yourself to get scammed. And, please be aware of the following as it relates to the IRS and their manner of tax collection. Here are some things the IRS will never do:
(1) The IRS will never call your home demanding the immediate payment of any taxes over the phone.
(2) Furthermore, the IRS will never ask for your credit or debit card information over the phone.
(3) The IRS will never demand that you pay taxes using a specific method like a prepaid debit card.
(4) The IRS will never threaten to have you arrested for not paying taxes.
If you feel like you’re being scammed, hang up the phone and call the Boston Police or the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484. For more information as it relates to the IRS and scam alerts, please visit: www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Scams-Consumer-Alert…
Some suggestions to help protect oneself against phone scams:
A) People with answering machines should take notice of any names and/or phone numbers that they don’t recognize, and delete those calls/messages from their answering machine.
B) For those with caller ID: Ignore any phone numbers/names that you don’t recognize, and erase them.