Ingenious Scam Targets Taxpayers
Submitted by Desmond Wealth Management, Inc. on September 29th, 2016Crooks have tried all sorts of e-mail scams, but almost everyone has figured out that the IRS does not send out notices by e-mail. So crooks have changed their tactics.
Now, there are reports of taxpayers receiving by mail (and email) fake notices requiring immediate payment to a P.O. Box. The P.O. Boxes are located in cities where the IRS has service centers, but of course are not IRS P.O. Box addresses.
These scammers have duplicated the look of official IRS mail notices, which to the untrained eye would lead one to believe a notice was really from the IRS. We always recommend that anytime you receive correspondence from a tax agency that you contact us so that we can help you pay the least amount of legal tax possible. With these current scams it is even more critical that you bring any notice you receive to our attention immediately, and not respond to them on your own.
So be extremely cautious of any notice you may receive from the IRS. If a notice is demanding immediate payment and there has not been any prior contact by the IRS over the issue, then the notice is probably from a scammer. Reports indicate the initial letters were numbered CP-2000 and did not request payment.
Here is a sample fake IRS CP-2000 Notice supplied by Iowa State University.
You can also compare the notice number to those listed on the IRS website to see if the contents of a suspicious letter match the format of letters sent by the IRS.