x
Breaking News
More () »

Verify: Will the IRS ever call to demand immediate payment?

With the nation's tax deadline approaching on April 17, it's important to know how to keep your money safe.

With the nation's tax deadline approaching on April 17, it's important to know how to keep your money safe.

You’ve probably heard of the age old IRS phone scam or even been targeted yourself.

The 13 On Your Side Verify team answered the question: Will the IRS ever call to demand immediate payment?

THE ANSWER

No.

“The IRS will never call you and demand immediate payment,” said IRS Spokesman Luis Garcia over the phone.

Garcia said scams have increased in recent years because of the availability of personal information that's been stolen from people.

"They try to sound like they're legitimately the IRS by giving you all this information that makes it sound like only the IRS would know and then they hit you with the panic button, which gets your rational brain to stop thinking," Garcia said.

He added, "That's where the threat comes out: either they are going to foreclose on your house, deport you, take your driver's license away, send the police to kick your door down. All these things that the IRS would never do.”

There are three things to remember the IRS would never do.

“We’re never going to threaten you, we are never going to demand immediate payment, and we are never going to say that you have to pay by any particular method,” Garcia said.

LOCAL SCAM CASE

Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scams, according to the IRS website.

Local business owner Austin Smith was almost one of them.

He was filing taxes for the first time this year for his digital marketing business Searchiply.

“I had no idea what I was doing.”

When he got a phone call about it, he wasn't all that surprised.

“I was contacted by this guy saying he was part of the IRS, and that I had filed my taxes in a fraudulent manner," Smith said. "He actually gave me his badge number and told me all this stuff to make him seem as legitimate as possible.”

The scammers demanded he stay on the line and immediately pay a fee with a prepaid card - or they would transfer him to the Grand Rapids Police Department and he would get arrested.

“I looked up the phone number of where she was calling from, and it turns out that it was the Grand Rapids Police Department," Smith said. "I just was like alright, I guess I'll pay the fee.”

But when he googled IRS tax scams, this one was textbook.

“It was just kind of like checking off the boxes, like yup, he did this, he did this, he did this," Smith said. "So I said I'm done with this and I hung up the phone.”

According to the IRS website, "Scammers often alter caller ID numbers to make it look like the IRS or another agency is calling.”

Garcia says if you get a threatening call from someone claiming to be the IRS, just hang up.

The vast majority of the time you will be contacted with a letter first.

►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.

Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.

Before You Leave, Check This Out