Even if the caller ID shows the call is from the Internal Revenue Service, don’t believe it! These con artists that are targeting innocent taxpayers have spoofed the IRS phone numbers which can actually be routed from anywhere in the US. The crooks will either call pretending to be the IRS and threaten taxpayers that they owe money or that they need to resubmit their taxes all together. Either way, they are trying to hustle innocent people out of money and/or information so they can steal their identity.
As reported by Tax Girl Kelly Phillips Erb in Top Ten Area Codes making Spam Calls: Are They Dialing You Up? Whitepages has just released The Top 10 Area Codes used by all spam callers (not just the tax-related spam callers, all spam callers)
Top 10 area codes receiving spam:
- 313 – Detroit
- 713 – Houston
- 954 – Fort Lauderdale
- 404 – Atlanta
- 484 – Eastern and Southeastern Pennsylvania
- 407 – Orlando
- 214 – Dallas
- 202 – Washington, D.C.
- 972 – Dallas
- 205 – Birmingham
If your clients receive a call from the scam artists, some caller ID systems can tell that the phone numbers are spoofed and give the actual phone number. If you think they may have any valuable information that can help aid in the capture of these criminals, please urge them to report it as soon as possible here to The Treasury or they can call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.
UltimateTax cares as much about your clients as you do. Without them, none of us would be here. Let’s do everything we can to protect them!
