By Sandra Guile
Better Business Bureau
U.S. consumers and businesses were haunted for months, even years by various callers claiming to be with the US Treasury Department or from a supposed collection agent named Steve Martin or David Gray. Sometimes the caller would threaten the person who answered the phone with financial penalties, lawsuits, or jail time if the alleged tax debt wasn’t settled immediately. The caller would then state the debt could be erased with the use of a prepaid debit card, iTunes card, or wire transfer.
Nationally, BBB’s Scam Tracker received approximately 200 reports of these calls from people in the last year. Locally, BBB|Cincinnati averaged 2 to 3 reports per week, totaling 138 for the year.
While many of these calls came from overseas, this crime was also committed in the U.S. In fact, this past May, five people in Florida were arrested for bilking $36.5 million from 6,400 victims. In Mumbai, law enforcement agents raided a large call center operation in early October, arresting 70 people for fraud and numerous other crimes. They extorted more than $125,000 per day from Americans. The Department of Justice charged 61 people from both India and the United States for falsely impersonating IRS representatives. Of the 61 charged, 24 of them were from nine U.S. states.
As these arrests are taking place and indictments are being handed down, BBB has noticed a drop in bogus tax collection calls. BBB’s Scam Tracker recorded a drop from 200 reports per week to just 11. Locally, BBB|Cincinnati’s Scam Tracker hasn’t received a tax collection call report since October 19.
Even though the reports have dwindled for this type of scam, it is always prudent to be cautious. For example, the Federal Trade Commission was recently alerted to a telemarketing scheme where callers were falsely telling people they represented Amazon and offered, for hundreds or thousands of dollars, to create a website linked to Amazon.com. They claimed that the website would earn the victim thousands of dollars per month. This is an indication of how quickly another scheme can appear even after a large-scale raid has taken place. BBB will continue to monitor for new schemes like this and will maintain their presence in the community in an effort to educate the public on what they can do to recognize and avoid scams.
For now, people are encouraged to register for the National Do Not Call Registry and to utilize the caller ID function on their phone if they have it. Anytime the caller ID shows a phone number you don’t recognize, don’t answer it. If you do pick up the call and the caller is threatening you over an unknown debt or asking for personal data such as account information or a Social Security Number, hang up the phone. The IRS states it doesn’t use the phone as it’s primary method of contact and never calls debtors to ask for payment on an outstanding debt.
To report an illegal scheme or fraud, use bbb.org/scamtracker.
Sandra Guile is the Community Outreach Specialist for BBB. She promotes BBB’s message of marketplace ethics through public speaking engagements, presentations, media relations, press releases, web content, and other written materials. Tune in Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. with Scott Sloan on 700WLW for The Scam of the Week and every third Thursday with Brian Thomas on 55KRC. Contact Sandra at (513) 639-9126 or sguile@cincinnati.bbb.org. Your BBB is located at 1 East 4th Street Suite 600 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 – to reach the office, call (513) 421-3015.