After receiving a number of recent consumer reports regarding unsolicited phone calls from individuals pretending to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Attorney General’s office is once again warning Rhode Islanders to be wary of potential scams. 

Individuals are contacting taxpayers by telephone, claiming the taxpayer owes back taxes that must be paid immediately. In many cases, the caller threatens legal action, arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license if the payment is not made right away via a prepaid debit card or wire transfer. 

“Although we have issued several warnings about this scam, it keeps resurfacing in Rhode Island and across the country,” Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said. “We are reminding consumers to be vigilant and to remember that the IRS never calls individual taxpayers to demand immediate payment. These callers are aggressive and employ scare tactics in an attempt to cheat people out of their hard-earned money. The best way to stop this scam is to hang up immediately and contact our office so we can warn other consumers.” 

Kilmartin warns consumers that the individuals who run this scam may sound legitimate by using the following techniques:

Use common names and fake IRS badge numbers.

Make caller ID appear as if the IRS is calling by using spoofing software or pre-paid cell phones.

Send bogus IRS emails to support the bogus calls.

Call a second time claiming to be the police or department of motor vehicles, again, the caller ID again appears to support their claim.

If you get a call from someone who claims to be with the IRS asking you to pay back taxes, hang up.

Report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484 or at www.tigta.gov.

Never provide any bank account or other personal or financial information to a person or company that you don’t know.

Do not wire money to a person or company you don’t know.