Smooth NIGHT OUT MONEY MATTERS Wednesday October 8th, 6-8pm SCAMMERS POSING AS IRS AGENTS ARE AFTER YOUR MONEY I t’s rampant. Callers posing as Internal Revenue Service agents continue to terrorize Bakersfield residents and others around the nation. The largest IRS phone scam in history has extorted taxpayers out of an estimated $5 million. Roughly 90,000 complaints have been reported with a high concentration of victims in California. SIGNS OF AN IRS SCAM It’s pretty easy to spot when a supposed IRS caller is a fake — they all have the same pitch. They identify themselves as an IRS agent using a generic name and bogus badge number. Claiming you owe unpaid taxes, they state an arrest warrant has been issued and demand immediate payment. There are variations to their deceitful stories but once they have you on the line, they are persuasive, threatening, and downright insulting. When challenged, callers become aggressive and often follow up initial threats with multiple phone calls. If you refuse to cooperate, the caller often threatens immediate arrest, deportation, or suspension of your driver’s license. In many cases, the hostile caller hangs up on you and then calls back pretending to be the local police or Department of Motor Vehicles. They typically spoof the phone number so that caller ID appears to be the police or DMV, making it all the more believable. These angry shakedown calls are not how the IRS does business. Under no circumstances is the IRS going to call you unexpectedly and exhibit this behavior. Here are five tips from the IRS to spot behaviors that the scammers often do, but the IRS does not. The IRS will never: • Call you about taxes you owe without first mailing you several official notices. • Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe. • Require you to use a specific payment method to pay your taxes. • Ask for credit card or debit card information over the telephone. The IRS cannot take payment over the phone. • Threaten to bring in police or other law enforcement to arrest you immediately following the phone conversation if you do not pay. OTHER SIGNS TO WATCH FOR • Scammers may know the last four digits of your Social Security number or of your spouse’s. • Scammers may have other personal information, such as your place of employment. • Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number or use a Washington, D.C. 202 area code on caller ID to make it appear the IRS is calling. • Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to victims to support their bogus calls. • Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site. TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF It’s human nature to let all your reasoning go out the window when you get a frightening phone call from a federal agency purporting there are problems. If you get a call, don’t ever give out information. Hang up the phone. Here’s what the IRS recommends: • If you aren’t sure if you owe taxes, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. The IRS can help you determine if there truly is an issue. A CPA can also assist on your behalf. • If you know it’s a scam, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484 or online at tigta.gov. • You should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at ftc.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint. • If you have received an IRS scam email, forward it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. Don’t open any attachments or click on any links in those emails. — Chris Thornburgh is a CPA and partner at Brown Armstrong Accountancy Corp. Contact her at cthornburgh@bacpas.com or Thornburgh (661) 324-4971. Join us! For A One Night Only Event -;, 6'$-!£ ø'89T -9$3<2;9 !2& 83&<$; '1329;8!ধ329 2$£<&-2+V Sculptra -9$3='8 2ধf +-2+ (38 ;,' 13&'82 !+' ,' )89; (!$-!£ -2/'$;!#£' ;,!; +-='9 @3< 23ধ$'!#£' 8'9<£;9 ;,!; '1'8+' 9<#;£@ !2& $!2 £!9; up to two years! Silk Peel #8'!0;,83<+, 9@9;'1 ;,!; $31#-2'9 68'$-9-32 232f-2=!9-=' '?(3£-!ধ32 >-;, '81!£-2(<9-32W ='2; 39;'& @ ,' 2'>'9; £32+f£!9ধ2+ (!$-!£ -2/'$ধ32T $<£6;8!T >-££ #' ,39ধ2+ ;,-9 '='2; >-;, (33&T >-2'T $<£6;8!T >-££ #' ,39ধ2+ ;,-9 '='2; >-;, (33&T >-2'T &'9'8;9 { 96'$-!£ 3ø'89R Please Call To Reserve Your Spot For This Special Night of Beauty. (661) 410-5476 Dr. Siniva Kaneen Board Certified OB/GYN Dr. Jason P. Helliwell Certified by the American board of cosmetic surgery in breast, body, and extremities. Board Certified OB/GYN <9#!2& { -(' 6683!$, c !2& 391'ধ$ <8+'8@ 8501 Brimhall Road, Bldg 300 !0'89)'£&T ! 391'ধ$ <8+'8@ !0'89) '£&W$31 bakersfieldlife.com 17