For years the IRS has warned taxpayers about the tax scam calls in which scammers pretend to be from the IRS and threaten the taxpayer with wage garnishment or imprisonment unless they pay that day by getting prepaid cards or depositing cash into bogus bank accounts.
But the IRS made major revisions to the IRS code on “collections” and starting on April 19, 2017, real third party debt collectors can call you to collect taxes owing.
The IRS has awarded contracts to 4 agencies currently: Conserve, Pioneer, Performant and CBE Group. This information is public so the scammers might try to impersonate employees of these companies.
Before you receive any calls, the IRS will send you a letter and so will the debt collection agency. But scammers will also be sending bogus letters.
So how do you protect yourself? If you receive a call, ask for all of the information you can from the person calling regarding their name, company information and phone number then hang up and do your own research. If the phone number matches the real company then it’s legitimate. Also keep in mind that the tax collectors cannot threaten jail time, garnish wages or collect payment over the phone.
More than 5,500 people have already been victims of the scams for a loss of over $36 million dollars. If you receive one of these calls call us – WE CAN HELP!
