If you receive a call from someone claiming to be an IRS agent threatening to take legal action for alleged problems with your tax return, don't panic and certainly don't comply with any request for payment.
Just hang up or delete the text message, knowing you avoided one of the more popular imposter scams in 2015, according to a new report from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and North American Consumer Protection Investigators (NACPI).
Imposter scams were tied with misrepresented internet sales for the 10th spot on the top 10 list of consumer complaints last year, according to a press release from CFA and NACPI.
The scams can take many forms, the survey report stated, such as the person claiming to be an IRS agent or posing as a tech-support employee with a well-known company such as Microsoft. One of the latest ploys is infiltrating a company’s communcations to send out a fraudulent email under the name of the CEO, asking employees to wire money to an account.
Signs and signals
The danger signs of a scam artist are simple and obvious, said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection and privacy for CFA: Somebody contacting you out of nowhere, unexpectedly asking for money or for personal information they should already have.
A new telltale sign of a scam is requesting gift cards as payment, specifically iTunes gift cards, as opposed to the old way of using money-transfer services. Grant said anyone can use a prepaid gift card, it can be resold on gift card resale websites and it’s difficult form of payment to trace.
“Only a scammer would ask to be paid that way, but I don’t think people realize it,” she said.
People tend to not take the time to think through what’s wrong with a scam pitch because often there’s a sense of urgency to it, she noted. Whether using fear tactics or the “it’s your lucky day, you won the lottery” line, victims are often told they have to act quickly.
Anything that seems unusual should raise a warning flag. If the person is legitimate, Grant continued, there should be no issue with a consumer asking for a way to get back to them and then contacting the company or agency they claim to be with.
Easy money
Scammers don’t have to take in that many people for it to be profitable, Grant noted. Making calls and emails are so inexpensive today, that even if 999 out of 1,000 people don’t fall for a scam, the one who does makes the payoff worth it, she added.
Grant had no statistics for the profitability or solve rates of scammer cases, noting the data were spread across law agencies and not pooled by a central agency. But she could say that it’s difficult to find a scammer, let alone take action against them.
“Once a scammer has your money, it’s probably gone for good,” warned Grant.
While he wasn’t so unfortunate as to lose money to a scam, 69-year-old Richard Parr of Kearns, Utah, received a call on his cellphone one day that purported to be from the IRS.
He said he was out driving and answered his phone to a recording telling him that the IRS was going to sue him. A number was provided for him to call.
“I know the IRS doesn’t call you,” he said.
Still, Parr said at first he panicked at the thought of the IRS wanting to sue him. It left him “a bit shook up,” as he kept driving.
When he called the number provided in the message, though, he said the person that answered told him “We can’t talk,” and hung up on him.
Suspecting that something was afoot and wanting to talk to someone about what was going on, Parr said he went to Utah’s Better Business Bureau and asked if he might have encountered a scam.
He was told yes, and after leaving the bureau he said he posted the number that called him online, whereupon other people commented with similar scam encounters.
Take action
Aside from being on their guard against suspicious pitches, consumers can also help solve the problem by following Parr's example and reporting it to their local or state consumer-protection agency, Grant said. Despite the difficulties in catching a scammer, law enforcement is not without power and compiles the information to go after them.
The company or agency the scammer claimed to represent should also be contacted, Grant said. They’re eager to get the word out to consumers about scams that involve them, and having intel on the precise pitch is invaluable, she continued.
And lastly, if a consumer encounters the scam they should share it with people they know. The only real effective way to stop people from falling for a scam is to educate and “empower them to just say no,” Grant said.
Contact the reporter at smanderson@deseretnews.com; Or follow her on Twitter at @Sarahsonofander.