Another IRS Scam: Police Chief Issues Tips on How to Avoid It

New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski is again warning residents to beware of anyone calling and stating that they're from the IRS and need immediate payment to resolve a tax-payment problem.

Krolikowski has warned about the scam before, and New Canaan Patch has published articles about previous incidents and about how to avoid the scam:

• Phony IRS Agent Scams $1K from Woman with 1 Phone Call(June 10)

• Police Warn Against 'Tax Man' Scammers, Other Phone Frausters (April 25)

• IRS Says Don't Wire $$ to Callers Claiming to Be from IRS (April 14)

• IRS Warns About 'Taxpayer Advocate' Email Phishing Scam (March 28)

A New Canaan resident reports receiving an unsolicited telephone call in which the female caller claims to be “IRS Officer Hellgrate.”

A message was left on the resident’s answering machine and the “Officer” stated that the resident could avoid legal proceedings, and would not be prosecuted, if the resident back immediately.

The call back number was “202-506-9925.” This number appears to be from the Washington DC area code but is it likely a “spoofed” call.

The person answering the telephone at this number has a heavy foreign accent (likely Spanish),  identifies the agency as the Internal Revenue Service, and when questioned by the police as part of the investigation the caller hung–up.

This call appears to be computer generated but other calls may be initiated by live callers.

These calls are scams and the caller is not legitimate.

Older residents are usually the targets of these fraudulent telephone calls.

Generally, Internal Revenue Service contact with taxpayers on a federal tax issue is likely to occur via United States mail.

How to Avoid This Scam

Residents should:

1. Never give personal information(dates of birth, social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, computer passwords, etc.) to unknown persons over the telephone or electronically.
2. Be suspicious of unsolicited telephone calls, voice messages and/or e-mails.
3. Do not call these unsolicted callers back.
4. Always check information that is provided by the caller to ensure it is accurate and legitimate.
5. Avoid conversations with unknown callers.
6. Never wire or send money in response to an unknown caller who makes an unexpected demand.
7. Contact our police department at 203-594-3500 for assistance.