Residents asked to remain vigilant, not give personal info

In recent months, some Benicia residents have been issuing complaints about calls from people pretending to be IRS agents and claiming that those on the other end of the call have not paid their taxes. The fraudulent callers then ask for the responders’ credit or debit card information and threaten them with arrest if they do not comply. Those who receive these calls should refrain from giving out personal information, hang up and report the incident to the police. (Photo by Nick Sestanovich)

If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be an Internal Revenue Service agent stating that you have unpaid taxes that you will need to pay over the phone with a debit or credit card, do not fall for it. This is a scam and should be reported to the police immediately.

Fraudulent IRS phone scams have been an issue for at least three years and show no signs of slowing down. The calls generally involve a person— often with a common name like “Julie Smith” or “John Parker” or a Hollywood-inspired name like “Steve Martin”— claiming to be from the IRS and telling the victim that they have not paid their taxes and will be arrested unless they wire them money over the phone or give them their credit or debit card information. If the victim does not comply, the caller often gets very hostile and uses rather insulting language.

According to the actual IRS, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration had identified nearly 1,100 victims who had lost an estimated $5 million from these scams as of 2014.
Such calls have often popped up in Benicia, enough to the point where the Benicia Police Department created a post on its Facebook page in January advising residents not to fall for it.

“We haven’t gotten a lot of reports, but we have gotten sporadic reports since our initial Facebook post back in January,” Benicia Police Sgt. James Laughter said.

Laughter said the signs of a scam are rather easy to identify.

“The IRS will never ask for your debit or credit card number when they speak to you,” he said.

Additionally, if a citizen has unpaid taxes, the IRS will let them know by submitting a letter, not a phone call. Likewise, the IRS will never request money over the phone, specify a certain form of payment, threaten arrest or call after regular office hours.

People who receive these calls should also make note of the phone numbers if they receive them through a cellphone. Many of the fraudulent calls reported to the Federal Trade Commission have been preceded by a 480 area code, which is based out of central Arizona. Other commonly reported scam calls have had a 202 area code, which encompasses Washington D.C., possibly in an attempt to trick people into thinking the call came from the national IRS headquarters. The actual phone number for the IRS customer service line is 1 (800) 829-1040.

If Benicia residents receive a suspicious call from someone claiming to be an IRS agent, Laughter suggests they hang up and call the police department and IRS. He also suggests they do all they can to make sure their account is safe.

“When it comes to fraud, we ask all our citizens to be vigilant about keeping their account numbers protected and credit information private,” he said. “If they believe they are a victim of fraud, we ask them to not only contact us but to contact the three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) to have their credit checked to make sure there’s no fraudulent accounts on their credit report.”

The Benicia Police Department is located at 200 East L St. and can be reached by phone at 745-3411.

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