TAMPA, Fla. – During April’s Financial Literacy Month, the IRS Criminal Investigation Tampa Field Office reminds the public to be cautious of impostor scams, which were the leading fraud category in 2023 according to the Federal Trade Commission.
“We want to remind taxpayers that scammers do not operate with the same deadlines as the IRS.
Scammers posing as IRS personnel have increased their phone calls to potential victims stating they
qualify for tax forgiveness or that they owe taxes and face arrest if not paid,” said Acting Special Agent In
Charge, Lani Espinal, IRS:CI Tampa Field Office. “ The IRS will not call you and threaten arrest if payment
is not made on demand. The IRS will not ask for payment in the form of gift cards, cryptocurrency, or
other difficult to trace payment methods.”
According to the IRS CI, in November 2023, Jignesh Purshottambhai Vekaria was sentenced in Tampa to four years and three months in federal prison for his role in laundering money extorted from victims using an India-based call center.
Read: Jamaican Man And Woman Charged In Florida For ‘Lottery’ Scam Targeting Elderly
The caller would identify themselves as federal law enforcement officers, such as Social Security Administration officials, FBI agents, or IRS officers, and threaten victims with imminent arrest or other consequences if they did not make payments.
In addition to phone calls, scams involving the impersonation of the IRS usually take the form of e-mails,
tweets, or other online messages to taxpayers.
The FTC released data in February 2024 showing consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud last year. According to the FTC, victims of imposter scams lost $2.7 billion to criminals.
Taxpayers are advised to follow the tips below should they be contacted by a suspected scammer:
Phone calls
- Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.
- Contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to report the IRS impersonation scam call.
- Report the caller ID and callback number to the IRS by sending it to phishing@irs.gov.
- The subject line should include “IRS Phone Scam.”
- Report the call to the Federal Trade Commission.
Email claiming to be from the IRS
- Do not reply.
- Do not open any attachments. They can contain malicious code that may infect your
computer or mobile phone. - Do not click on any links. Visit the identity protection page if you click on links in a
suspicious email or website and entered confidential information. - Send the full email headers or forward the email as-is to phishing@irs.gov.
- Do not forward screenshots or scanned images of emails because this removes valuable
information. - Delete the original email.
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