My mother received a phone call on Saturday morning at 6 am from “Agent Smith” of the IRS demanding immediate payment of her taxes or she would find herself “thrown in jail.” Yes, the scamsters are still out there.
Now imagine you’re a senior citizen, and you get a phone call waking you up telling you to pay the IRS or you’ll find yourself in prison. It doesn’t take a genius to know that these scamsters can intimidate their victims.
Luckily, my mother is well trained. She’s already reported the scamster who called her. She knew it was phony because:
- The IRS never initiates collection activities with a phone call.
- The IRS will never call you in proscribed times without your permission. (It’s illegal to make collection calls at 6am on a Saturday morning.)
- The IRS will never demand payment without giving you appeal rights. And,
- “The IRS is a government agency. They wouldn’t have people working on a Saturday morning!”
I could add to that I’ve trained her pretty well on this. In any case, I hope that the lead passed on to TIGTA will result in one less scammer out there. And if you’re reading this Mr. Smith, don’t mess with my mother!