New IRS Strategy May Make It Harder To Distinguish Tax Collectors From Scammers
(CBS) -- Today you can start filing your taxes and that means scammers are firing up their phones.
The IRS is firing back with a public service campaign. But CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker learned the taxman might be sending a mixed message this year.
"The BBB [Better Business Bureau] has always touted that the IRS never calls you," said Steve Bernas. "Now this opens the door for hey the IRS does call."
It's a big change, but the IRS is now taking steps to hire debt collectors who will call taxpayers to collect back taxes.
For years the agency promoted PSAs like warning taxpayers to watch out for scammers posing as IRS agents.
Last year, more than 5,000 victims fell for the scam, giving fake agents $27 million, but with the IRS using its own debt collectors, that number is expected to rise.
"This is just going to give them more ammunition, feed them more information to make more calls and scams of this nature," said Bernas.
An IRS spokesman, who wouldn't talk on the record, acknowledged the concern and said the agency is working on language the debt collectors representing the IRS will use when they call taxpayers.
Tim Camus, an inspector with the US Treasury Department, is suggesting the agency first send letters to delinquent taxpayers warning they might get a call from a debt collector, but he says a red flag that an IRS agent is a fake is if they threaten you, like they threatened Al Cadenhead claiming he owed back taxes.
"She was informing me that they were filing a warrant for my arrest," he said.
"The IRS doesn't operate like that," Camus said. "If you owe tax, you will generally get letters first before you ever got a phone call and once they got you on the telephone, they would never threaten you with an immediate arrest for not paying your taxes."
Other warning signs it's a fake: they will ask you to pay immediately, might ask for credit card or account information. The IRS will not do that.
If you're unsure, tell the caller you will go to IRS office and pay.
