With the tax season wrapping up, scammers are out in full force. Perhaps you received a phone call demanding payment from the IRS. They may threaten you with legal action if you do not pay immediately, or say things like, “we are sending the police to arrest you.” While these calls may seem scary, it is important to understand that they are not legitimate. This scam, which started in October 2013, has claimed over $29 million from its victims. Unfortunately, this is just one of many scams designed to make you believe you are speaking with a legitimate government official.
Scammers use many tactics in an attempt to force victims to give out information, and sometimes money, via telephone or email. In Social Security related scams, they often call under a guise of helping you complete a disability application, asking you for your Social Security number or banking information.
Whether they are with Social Security or the IRS, a government employee will never do some things as part of official agency business, including:
- Call you to demand an immediate payment;
- Demand that you pay a debt without the ability to appeal the amount you owe;
- Require a specific means of payment, such as requiring you to pay with a prepaid debit card;
- Ask you for your personal information or credit or debit card numbers over the phone; or
- Threaten you with arrest or deportation.
Any legitimate request from a government agency will come to you in writing. Additionally, if you do receive a call from a government official, they will be able to provide you with a telephone number and extension. If you receive one of these scam calls or emails, do not provide them with any information. You should:
- Hang up immediately;
- For Social Security impersonations, contact Social Security’s Office of Inspector General at https://oig.ssa.gov/report;
- For IRS impersonations, contact the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at www.treasury.gov/tigta, using the “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting” page; and
- Contact the Federal Trade Commission on FTC.gov.
If you are attempting to conduct business with any government agency, or you have received a notice from such an agency, please utilize the telephone numbers provided in the notification. Additionally, you can find contact information on any .gov website such as socialsecurity.gov or irs.gov.
Before hanging up, you can ask for the Employee number of the person claiming to be from the IRS. Typically, the id #s start with 1000 or 1001 and are 9 or 10 digits long. Then tell them you know they are NOT an IRS employee (and if someone is dumb enough to give you a SSN, write it down and turn them in).
I have recd Scam calls and I have turned them over to the Inspectors office in Binghamton NY
I have recd at least 2 to 3 scam calls
and turned them over to the inspector
generals office in Binghamton, NY
This is good to make people aware of. I also got a call. long long time ago. I have been never late in my tax returns so I knew right away that this was a false call. I told the guy that go ahead do whatever is best for him but make sure you don’t get trapped doing wrongful. He hung up on me.
People who are cheating our government on taxes etc are cheated by these crooks.
One hand saves and the other hand gives away.
i have not get Amy calls in Amy event i will notified social security of such activities
Got a phone call 5/3/2016 on my mobile phone from 920-912-8918 claiming to be IRS. Called back, a man answered “IRS”. There was lots of talking in the background (like a call center). I hung up.
I feel so bad for others cause I go through the same thing ,they say now don’t even pick up phone if you don’t know number and don’t call them back..they are creeps and have no boundaries and don’t respect ours. Which means they are a capable of doing worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if all this cybercrime turns into terristic attacks cause they don’t fear authority obey laws or have boundaries or respect ours it’s horrible and out of hand…
Often you will find out the scamming calls come within a Prison! I say what is up with allowing prisoners to have computer access? They gave up their rights when they committed the crime! Stop allowing this to continue .
Additionally, rather than just always alerting possible victims, I believe this
Admin needs to spend more time on the Hackers! I received an email alleging they were from my mail order UAW employees pharmacy that I “owed” a small amount of $ and it was past due. EVERYTHING about the email looked legit, even all the logo normally on the website. But the toll free number was incorrect AND we have auto pay with our credit card! It has been turned over to Medicare Fraud and I learned the $6.70 they said I owed was a way to just get my info from later use with large amounts. I also have my credit card so that any large purchase MUST be verified with the card company and they ask a series of security questions.
Beyond the normal criminal offenses such as fraud and theft, impersonation of the IRS (or of the Social Security Administration) is a major federal crime!
Got a call from one of these scammers. reported it to the FBI and gave them the phone number. What these scammers don’t realize is that we don’t want to pay the IRS at all. So the joke is on them!!!! We need fair Tax and abolish the true IRS.
I got scam calls several times. I just tell them, send me a mail and I will answer. I do not give my mailing address because if it is IRS, it has my address, ssn everything on its file
I did receive a phone call but I don’t get the number I think god for the service amen.
Horse pucky
Manure
I got a call a while ago. They claimed they sent me a letter.
I asked for a copy of that letter to be emailed to me. Gave them a secondary email address I have. They mailed a letter showing the last 4 digits of my SSN. I know it was a scam, however it is scary that they had this information.
I did notify the IRS (report).
When I get such a call I inform them they they have reached a secret government agency and the phone # is only given to field agents. If they call again they’ll suffer termination by extreme prejudice.
My wife is a stay at home Retired Business type Woman, very sharp, astute, and a No non sense type; she lets them have it Diplomatically, Friendly Like, and they realize she is ” Bullet Proof ” and they do the only thing they can do is ” Hang Up”.
I received a scam call from supposedly IRS that I owe them. The call came from 217-697=6521. I informed the male caller that the call was a scam because I don’t owe IRS anything, he immediately hung up. I also reported this to IRS.
Received a call stating that the IRS was going to sue me and to call back on the number left to address this issue.
I want sameone to esplen me in Espanis because no espik ingleis Thank you
For information in Spanish, please visit us at http://www.segurosocial.gov or http://www.facebook.com/segurosocial. For Social Security information in other languages, please visit us at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/multilanguage.
Explain what? Just don’t answer the phone, so are you here legally? Just kidding.
Good and very apropeate question interesting
a victim for a tear in SSA
Knlegwdoe wants to be free, just like these articles!
I received a computerized voicemail (supposedly from IRS) which that right off the bat was a GIVE AWAY THAT IT WAS A SCAM. But the voicemail is very aggressive stating that I will be going to jail if the matter is not taken care of right away amoung other very mean and aggressive statements that are made to scare people into calling these criminals back and giving them whatever info. It is that these horrible people that are doing this want. What’s so sad is that there are so many people out there that fall for these scams because they are so very scared by what these criminals are telling them and they do not know any better so they feel they should do everything these horrible people are telling them to and then these poor people end up loosing everything because they end up giving out their S.S.#’s, addresses, full names & one of the worst things to give out besides your S.S# is your banking acct. info. I just feel so terrible for these people that fall for these scams. But I saved the voicemail that they left on my phone and will be handing it over to the IRS, because it has a phone number to call back, so I will let the IRS (the actual IRS) handle it. But I truly hope that these blogs will help some people out there to be more aware about all the kinds of scams that are out there and to be informed and prepared about what to do just in case they happen to be contacted by these CRIMINALS
This happened to me too. Thankfully I wasn’t intimidated.
The FBI and perhaps Homeland Security doing to track down, arrest and prosecute these criminals … you said that over $23 million has already been stolen …. It was very apparent from his accent that the scammer who called me was Indian or Pakistani. I ignored the call but was outraged and imagined that many fell for this scam. What are you doing to stop this beside posting a warning?
The government can’t do anything about the scammers. Even Social Security disability can’t stop the scammers from getting disability for anxiety, depression, and back pain. These scammers have doctors and psychiatrist/psychologist backing them up with medical records. They bust one, but there are dozens more still receiving disability and dozen more ready to take their place by the same doctors and psychiatrist/psychologist.
So what people with mental illnesses are crimials? I think you should do some research on mential disorders and educate yourself. On the issue just saying
Victims got to be stupid to fall for this scam. Wouldn’t it be easier for the scammers to go after the small businesses saying they got video tape of them hiring illegal immigrants and if they don’t pay, then they will call the police.
I would not say that the victims are stupid, rather they are uninformed and scared. If the victim is older and the scammer sounds professional enough, they could be intimidated enough to pay money even if they don’t owe it. They may not realize that someone could be evil enough to lie to them, especially if they respect the government and figure they must know what they are doing and yes maybe they do owe some money and they forgot.
I have made a copy of this article and plan to have my pastor to discuss this at my church in a meeting. I want to present it at a neighborhood meeting also. I don’t want more people to be scammed if I can help it.
If the government can’t do anything about the scammers, the least we, the informed, can do is to help pass on this information to the uninformed. So, LET”S DO IT NOW! Thank you.
The government is being scammed themselves with all these disability claims.
SSR96-5p: POLICY INTERPRETATION RULING TITLES II AND XVI: MEDICAL SOURCE OPINIONS ON ISSUES RESERVED TO THE COMMISSIONER
Under 20 CFR 404.1527(e) and 416.927(e), some issues are not medical issues regarding the nature and severity of an individual’s impairment(s) but are administrative findings that are dispositive of a case; i.e., that would direct the determination or decision of disability. The following are examples of such issues:
1.Whether an individual’s impairment(s) meets or is equivalent in severity to the requirements of any impairment(s) in the listings;
2.What an individual’s RFC is;
3.Whether an individual’s RFC prevents him or her from doing past relevant work;
4.How the vocational factors of age, education, and work experience apply; and
5.Whether an individual is “disabled” under the Act.
The regulations provide that the final responsibility for deciding issues such as these is reserved to the Commissioner.
The fraudsters get their doctors to write medical source statements and RFC. The ALJ take the treating source statements and RFC over the Commissioner.The ALJ gives the treating source all the weight in these areas reserved for the Commissioner.
First of all u obvisly have never gone through the prosses for mental problems first of all they ssia send you to There doctors not your personal doctor the doctors the ssia sends you to are working with the social security and those doctors are to weed out the scamers before ssia approves anything so i dont think you can influnct the ssi doctors to go in your faver and submitt false documention to the ssia. Therefore there not scammers. The people that are having real disibilys
As long as the scam still works, people will continue to do them.
this is true for mental disability should be rediagnosed yearly/
Most of the disability for mental heath is a scam. Older people don’t seek mental health treatment once they retire. All of the sudden their conditions are no longer severe where they have to see a psychologist /psychiatrist.
It is very rare to see a senior citizen in a psychologist/psychiatrist office. It means that most of these people over 50 who suddenly developed these severe mental illness are fraudsters. Once they convert their disability over to retirement, their severe mental illness is gone and they no longer have to see a psychologist /psychiatrist.
I got one of those calls and never answered the phone, so after five tries they just gave up.
A law signed in Jan. 1 by the President allows debt collectors to call if you own money on government back loans such as mortgages, school loans etc. Details should be worked out in the next few months. This will add confusion as to is legitimate.
Reported ss fraud for years regarding an illegal using some one else’s ss they do nothing? The issued ss was born in 1951 or before the user was born in 1972 how is this allowed..? They turn a blind eye they don’t protect idenifty theft of have the proof want ot?
i have no no recd scam calls
Informative Precaution.
Thank You