The Shelton Police Department has received numerous calls recently from citizens who state someone called them claiming to be from the IRS and that they owe money.
Residents who receive these calls are advised to not release any personal information and hang up immediately.
According to the IRS, taxpayers should remember their first contact with the IRS will not be a call from out of the blue, but through official correspondence sent through the mail.
A big red flag for these scams are angry, threatening calls from people who say they are from the IRS and urging immediate payment.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:
- If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue, if there really is such an issue.
- If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the office of the U.S. Treasure Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484.
You can file a complaint using the FTC Complaint Assistant; choose “Other” and then “Imposter Scams.”
If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.
