Online fraud is alive and well. About 4,550 people have been scammed by foreigners posing as IRS personnel and telling them they are about to be sued for unpaid taxes. The Treasury Inspector General, J. Russell George indicated they are working on bringing to justice the perpetrators of “‘the largest of its kind’” scam, yet taxpayers are urged to remain on “‘high alert.’”
According to George, a scammer will call an unsuspecting individual, claiming to be from the IRS. The “scammer tells the person that they have unpaid taxes and threatens him or her with a criminal violation, immediate arrest, deportation or loss of a business or driver’s license unless they settle the fees via a debit card or a wire transfer.” People have a hard time telling whether the call is legitimate because the scammers either use a robocall machine that leaves a message stating it is the IRS and they are being sued, or callers giving the last four digits of the victim’s social security number, or fake emails appearing to come from the IRS.
One of the ringleaders officials caught, Sahil Patel, is serving a 14 year sentence in federal prison for organizing call centers based in India, as part of the U.S. side of the scam.