Mass. Residents Targeted In New Tax Scam
DOVER (CBS) - Authorities have a warning about a massive scam targeting taxpayers.
The federal agency investigating says it's the biggest taxpayer scam they have ever seen.
In Massachusetts, residents are being inundated with calls. Dover Police put out a warning on their Facebook page about this scam in which taxpayers receive phone calls from people claiming to be the IRS and threatening them.
Ali Goli was one of the people who called Dover Police after receiving a phone call at his office just days before the tax filing deadline. "The lady told me that I owe the IRS more than $5000 and I had to pay them right away," he told WBZ-TV.
That was followed by a threat that if he didn't pay immediately, local law enforcement would arrest him.
Goli saw through the scam, but it didn't stop there. The callers contacted his brother-in-law. Now, two weeks later, he still gets messages on his cell phone threatening arrest and deportation.
"They are rude, they are aggressive. They insist on a lot of things," Goli said.
"We're getting an awful lot of calls which just goes to show that there are many, many more calls being made to victims across this county and this state," Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian said.
Even the Sheriff's own cousin was targeted by the scammers.
"The fact is that no law enforcement agency is going to threaten to arrest you if you don't pay a fine or pay some monies. We just don't do that," he said.
Still, many people are falling for the phone calls. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the federal agency investigating, this is "the largest scam of its kind."
More than 20,000 people have been contacted, thousands have fallen victim and the scammers have stolen more than $1 million.
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