Scammers posing as IRS agents are calling Kentuckians in an effort to defraud them of thousands of dollars. The Office of the Kentucky Attorney General is receiving multiple calls a week from people who have fallen victim to the scam.
The scammers tell those who answer the phone that they owe the government back taxes, or have filed a fraudulent tax return. Then the scammers try to get their would-be victims to resolve the matter by making payments through bank account deposits, money-wire transfers, or gift cards.
Ben Long is executive director of the Consumer Protection Division. He says the scammers are using intimidation as a way to defraud victims. "Usually indicating that the person needs to stay on the phone, and if they tell anybody about the call that things are going to be worse for them... to kind of get the person into a state of panic, a state of fear," Long says.
"The IRS is never going to have you stay on the phone with them, and start depositing money or taking money out of your accounts and wire them into another account. It's just not going to happen," Long says.
A Hardin County woman was defrauded out of more than $50,000 dollars by the scammers. After she was told she owed the government back taxes, the woman deposited $31,000 dollars into a bank account run by the scammers. She also paid for $19,000 in iTunes cards, and read the card codes to scammer over the phone.
An Elizabethtown woman also lost more than $50,000 dollars because of the scam.
