Criminal enterprises are attempting to defraud taxpayers by calling people claiming they are from the Internal Revenue Service. They often are polite and professionally speaking, and will say that they are from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and are initiating a lawsuit to collect taxes you owe. This should alert you that this is a fraudulent call because the IRS does NOT call taxpayers, they only will mail letters if you owe any taxes.
If you get such a call, ask the caller for their name and IRS badge number. Never provide the caller any information. I have found that they immediately hang up if you ask this. They will even hang up if you simply ask for their name. Should they give you a name and a badge number, write the information down and call the IRS fraud division at 800-366-4484 and ask to speak to someone who will verify that the name and ID is valid. If you are concerned that the phone call is valid, it would be best to give me a call and have me contact the IRS for you to ascertain if you have any tax issues to be resolved. Because the IRS policy is not to contact taxpayers by phone, you should consider the call fraudulent, and not call the person back.
Should you receive one of these calls, you can file a complaint with the IRS by going to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and clicking on “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting”.
