Central Coast residents victims of tax season scams
Tax season is the time of year when scam artists are hard at work, preying on personal and financial information made vulnerable by the digital, computer age we’re living in.
Its become a common occurrence at this time of year when people are preparing and reporting their taxes.
San Luis Obispo resident Gerald Craig recently received an odd but ominous voicemail message on his cell phone.
“The voicemail indicated that I was hiding something fraudulently from the IRS and I needed to call this number to rectify the situation”, Craig says.
No stranger to phone scams, Craig says he knew something wasn’t right.
“I suspected right away”, Craig says, “I went online and I double checked the phone numbers involved and confirmed there that this was a scam.”
The “robo-call”, or artificial, computer-generated phone call, has become a popular tactic by scam artists and identity thieves especially at tax time.
The Internal Revenue Service rarely, if ever, does business on the phone and routinely notifies U.S. taxpayers by mail, sometimes even by registered mail.
Gerald Craig felt the need to share his recent experience as a warning to others at this time of year.
“I just feel that this is the type of thing that people need to be aware of”, Craig says, “because even the most aware people at tax time may tend to just let their guard down and hear “IRS” and all of the sudden being stuck paying something.”
Most tax season questions can be answered online at the official IRS website, www.irs.gov, or by visiting your local IRS office.
