Officials warn of IRS scam in county
By From staff reports
Published in News on May 11, 2016 1:46 PM
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office is urging citizens to be on the lookout for a common scam involving callers claiming to be representing the Internal Revenue Service and demanding money.
Officials with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said that they have received several reports of residents being contacted by someone that claims to work for the IRS.
The caller then claims that the victim of the scam owes back taxes and if it is not paid immediately they will be arrested or possibly sued.
During the call, the caller tries to persuade the victim of the scam to either charge the money to a debit or credit card, or to wire the money to a certain address. There are a few other versions of the scam, but all of them are trying to use fear to persuade the victim to send money.
The sheriff's office is reminding residents to never give out any type of confidential financial information, such as credit, debit card or banking information, to any unknown person over the phone.
If you owe the IRS or the Department of Revenue or any other organization any money they would contact you by mail or in person. They would not arrest you for owing a debt.
The IRS would only criminally charge someone if they broke a law. If you talk to anyone in person be sure to check their credentials and attempt to verify the credentials by contacting the organization they claim to be representing.
People are also being contacted by callers telling them that they won a large amount of money, or a car, but need to pay taxes or service charges before they will receive the prize. The sheriff's office is reminding citizens that it is not possible to win a prize if they did not enter a contest.