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Police warn of scam

The Pennsylvania State Police are warning the public of an ongoing phone scam involving individuals demanding payment for the Internal Revenue Service.

These phone scammers often claim to be IRS employees, using false names and IRS identification badge numbers.

The scam can be a voice recording informing victims they owe back taxes and are subject to arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. The recording then gives a phone number for victims to call. Victims should not call the phone number, according to a state police press release.

Many scams originate from outside of the country and are difficult for law enforcement to investigate, states the press release. To avoid IRS phone scams, the state police provided five tips to spot an IRS imposter.

The press release says the IRS will never call to demand immediate payment, demand tax payments without opportunity to question or appeal, threaten to contact law enforcement agencies for an arrest, require the victim to use a specific payment method for taxes or ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be an IRS representative, call the IRS at 800-829-1040 if you think you owe taxes. If you do not think you owe taxes, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484 or at www.tigta.gov. You can also file a complaint using the Federal Trade Commission Complaint Assistant by selecting “Other” and then “Imposter Scams,” including the words “IRS telephone scam” in the notes.

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