Police Chief Leon Krolikowski issued a warning to New Canaan residents about an IRS scam on Thursday after receiving a computer-generated message at home saying that he had taxes that were past due and faced prosecution lest he paid up.
New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski
The chief told NewCanaanite.com that he phoned the fraudster’s number back at 202-800-5644 from department headquarters and that a man with a Hispanic accent answered and said to pay $4,500.
“These calls are scams and the caller is not legitimate,” Krolikowski said in a press release. “We expect these calls to increase. Internal Revenue Service contact with taxpayers on a federal tax issues occurs via the United States mail.”
Residents should:
- Never give personal information(dates of birth, social security numbers, home address, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, computer passwords, etc.) to unknown persons over the telephone or electronically.
- Be suspicious of unsolicited telephone calls, voice messages and/or e-mails.
- Not call these unsolicited callers back.
- Always check information that is provided by the caller to ensure it is accurate and legitimate.
- Avoid conversations with unknown callers.
- Never wire or send money in response to an unknown caller who makes an unexpected demand.
Find more information at: consumer.ftc.gov/blog/fake-irs-collectors-are-calling
Contact our police department at 203-594-3500 for assistance.
The IRS never calls and never asks for information over the phone. The only exception is if you have received numerous letters, certified and you have not responded usually for more than a year and you owe a large amount. Then they will attempt to locate you by a personal visit and or phone call. Again This would only happen if your case is in collection after many years. They will always leave a card at the door if they visited your home. Never ever give out info over the phone. The IRS never ever calls asking for immediate payment over the phone.
Roy Abramowitz CPA