It seems the crooks, obviously with plenty of time on their hands, have cooked up yet another scam using the name of the Internal Revenue Service. The newest tax scam involves fake property liens.
It threatens taxpayers with a tax bill from a fictional government agency. The IRS advises that the typical characteristics include:
- This scheme involves a letter threatening an IRS lien or levy.
- The scammer mails the letter to a taxpayer.
- The lien or levy is based on bogus overdue taxes owed to a non-existent agency.
- The non-existent agencies might have a legitimate-sounding name like the “Bureau of Tax Enforcement.” There is no such agency.
- This scam may also reference the IRS to confuse potential victims into thinking the letter is from a real agency.
If you do not owe taxes and have no reason to think you do, contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to report the letter. Use the “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting” web page. When reporting the scam, include the key words “IRS Lien.” Additional instructions include:
- Scan the document received as a letter or fax, and send it to phishing@irs.gov.
- Report it to the Federal Trade Commission using the FTC Complaint Assistant on FTC.gov.
- Report it also to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, known simply as IC3.
If you owe tax or think you might, you should:
- Review your tax account information and payment options at IRS.gov. Reviewing tax account information online will show the taxpayer if they indeed owe the IRS and how much. This is the fastest way to get this information.
- Call the IRS at 800-829-1040 to confirm the notice if they’re still not sure they owe.
For more information and consumer alerts, go to irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scams-consumer-alerts.
