Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot Suspicious Calls

The Internal Revenue Service issued a consumer alert today providing taxpayers with additional tips to protect themselves from telephone scam artists calling and pretending to be with the IRS.
These callers may demand money or may say you have a refund due and try to trick you into sharing private information. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They may know a lot about you, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request.
“These telephone scams are being seen in every part of the country, and we urge people not to be deceived by these threatening phone calls,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “We have formal processes in place for people with tax issues. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and these angry, shake-down calls are not how we do business.”
The IRS reminds people that they can know pretty easily when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam. The IRS will never:

1. Call you about taxes you owe without first mailing you an official notice.
2. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
3. Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
5. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do:

• If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue.
• If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov.
• If you’ve been targeted by this scam, also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint.

Remember, too, the IRS does not use email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box.

Recent Tax Fraud Cases

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases:
Laredo, Texas: Preparer Michelle A. Morin has been arrested following the return of a 14-count indictment alleging she aided and assisted in the preparation of false and fraudulent income tax returns.
The indictment alleges that between tax years of 2007 to 2010, Morin helped prepare false and fraudulent 1040s that included fake business losses, interest and taxes paid, gifts to charity, job expenses and miscellaneous deductions, as well as residential energy credits. She is accused of assisting in the preparation of 14 fraudulent returns for seven taxpayers during the four-year-period, resulting in a total loss to the government of more than $220,000.
If convicted, Morin faces a maximum three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. She was released on $75,000 bail after surrendering her U.S. passport.St. Louis: Preparer Christopher Mickles has been charged with four felony counts of aiding and abetting in the preparation of false returns.
Mickles, owner and operator of Discount Tax Service, is charged in connection with preparing more than 750 federal income tax returns for clients during tax years 2008 through 2011. Many of those returns falsely claimed fraudulent items and credits, such as household-help income and EITCs.  
If convicted, he faces a maximum of 12 years in prison or a fine of up to $400,000, or both.
Maplewood, N.J.: Preparer Carlyle Fraser, owner of Fraser CPA and Taxko Inc., has pleaded guilty to his role in preparing returns with false information. He was charged with one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false individual income tax returns.
According to case documents and statements in court, from 2008 through 2011 Fraser prepared and filed false returns for his clients. On April 8, 2011, he prepared a false 2010 individual income tax return for an undercover agent, which claimed false deductions for medical and dental expenses, charitable contributions, unreimbursed employee expenses, tuition, a business loss and a capital gains loss.
Fraser, who caused a tax loss to the IRS of $149,739, faces a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is June 25.
Cincinati: Preparer Kesha Spencer, 39, has pleaded guilty one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns.
According to court documents, Spencer operated the tax prep business Tax Cash Sooo Fast, where she prepared and e-filed some 200 false returns for each of the 2010 and 2011 income tax years. The returns falsely reported household income, head of household filing status and dependents, and also falsely claimed refundable credits, including the EITC, the Making Work Pay Credit and the American Opportunities Credit. Some of the returns prepared and filed by Spencer were entirely fictitious, including those filed on behalf of several individuals in jail at the time. The tax loss came to some 103,541.97.
Spencer also filed false 2010 and 2011 individual income tax returns for herself that omitted most of the income she earned from preparing returns through Tax Cash Sooo Fast and omitted unemployment compensation she received in 2010 and claimed false Schedule A and Schedule C expenses. Tax loss associated with the filing of these returns was $33,245.27.
Spencer was released on bond and will be sentenced on June 3, when she faces a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
Plantation, Fla.: The United States has asked a federal court to permanently bar Keisha Stewart and her company, Professional Tax Services Inc., from preparing federal returns for others. According to the complaint, Stewart and her company prepared federal income tax returns that inflated income or included fictitious income to qualify clients to receive or maximize the EITC.
The complaint states that Stewart also claimed credits for refunds or to decrease tax on her clients’ returns, including false education and residential energy credits. According to the complaint, Stewart also falsely claimed head of household status on behalf of clients who did not qualify to decrease their tax liabilities. Stewart also allegedly claimed false dependents on behalf of clients and claimed the child and additional child tax credits on behalf of those clients. Allegedly she typically included these items on clients’ returns without their knowledge.
The government claims Stewart’s returns cost it more than $1.6 million annually during the tax years 2010, 2011 and 2012.
New York: Former police officer and moonlighting preparer Jonathan Wally, 34, has received five years’ probation for tax fraud and ID theft related to his preparation and filing of false and fraudulent individual income tax returns.
According to case papers, from 2003 until his arrest last April, Wally was assigned to the 34th Precinct in the Washington Heights/Inwood section of Manhattan. Since at least 2008, he was a tax preparer registered with the IRS. Although the NYPD requires officers to obtain written authorization to engage in off-duty employment, Wally never sought or obtained such authorization.
From 2010 through April 2012, he defrauded the IRS out of refunds to others based on fraudulent and false tax returns he prepared and filed. The returns claimed, among other things, false deductions for dependents. Continuing through January 2013, Wally also prepared and filed returns on his own behalf that claimed false dependents and failed to declare certain income. In connection with this scheme, he obtained the personal ID information and Social Security numbers of children and declared those children as dependents on returns he prepared and filed on behalf of others and himself.
The IRS paid these taxpayers at least $146,818 in fraudulent refunds, and fraudulent returns prepared and filed by Wally caused the IRS to pay him at least $48,990 in bogus refunds. In total, Wally’s scheme defrauded the IRS of $195,808.
Wally’s probation will include six months of intermediate confinement and one year of electronic monitoring to run concurrent to confinement. In addition to probation and intermediate confinement, Wally, who pleaded guilty in August, was ordered to pay a $400 special fee and $195,808 in restitution to the IRS.

The New York State-issued income tax refund debit card offers these 
advantages:
    Safe:         More secure than paper check refunds
    Economical:   No monthly fees and no check cashing fees
    Flexible:     Can be used to make online and in-store purchases
                  with no fee; or ATM withdrawals
                  (in most cases, with no fee) 
    Easy:         Just choose the debit card option on the New York 
                  State tax return.

IRS says:  “Don’t count on getting your refund by a certain date to make major purchases or pay other financial obligations..."

E-file Refund Cycle Chart Discontinued-

In the past IRS published Publication 2043, IRS E-file Refund Cycle Chart, showing when direct deposits were scheduled to be made or paper checks were scheduled to be mailed.  These scheduled dates were based on the date the tax return was accepted by IRS into their system.

Now Publication 2043 is titled “IRS Refund Information Guidelines for the Tax Preparation Community”.
 IRS is no longer providing us a Refund Cycle Chart showing the expected dates taxpayers will get their refunds. 
This change is an effort by IRS to permit itself more time to conduct more testing on returns to find fraud BEFORE the refunds are sent out.  IRS says it still plans to get most refunds sent out within 21 days.

 

Taxpayers can find information regarding IRS’ processing of their tax returns at http://www.irs.gov/ by clicking on “Where’s My Refund”.   
Their tax return status should show up 24 hours after IRS receives their e-filed return, or 4 weeks after IRS receives their paper filed return.  Taxpayers will need to have their Social Security number, their filing status, and the exact refund shown on their return.

 

When taxpayers check IRS’ web site, they will find one of three messages:

1) The date the return was received,

2) The date the return was approved, and

3) The date the refund was sent.

The information at “Where’s My Refund” is updated once every night.

 

Important Notice - IRS warns consumers about a new tax scam that uses a website that mimics the IRS e-Services online registration page. 11-07-2012 12:52 PMThe actual IRS e-Services page offers web-based products for tax preparers, not the general public. The phony IRS web page looks almost identical to the real one. Please note that the IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels. 

The IRS warns consumers about a new tax scam that uses a website that mimics the IRS e-Services online registration page

Description

The following informational alert is listed on the IRS website under What's Hot and the Problem Alerts section http://www.irs.gov/uac/Problem-Alerts

 

Consumer Alerts

‪Please note that the IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels.

• ‪If you get an unsolicited email that appears to be from the IRS, please report it by sending it to phishing@irs.gov. ‪
• If you find a suspicious website that claims to be the IRS, please send the site’s URL by email to phishing@irs.gov, using the subject line: suspicious website.

 

October 2012
Don't Fall for Phony IRS Websites

 

The IRS warns consumers about a new tax scam that uses a website that mimics the IRS e-Services online registration page.

‪

The actual IRS e-Services page offers web-based products for tax preparers, not the general public. The phony web page looks almost identical to the real one.

 

The IRS gets many reports of fake websites like this. Criminals use these sites to lure people into providing personal and financial information that may be used to steal the victim’s money or identity.

‪

Additional Information

• The address of the official IRS website is www.irs.gov. Don’t be misled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com, .net, .org or other designations instead of .gov.
• The IRS website has information that can help you protect yourself from tax scams of all kinds. Search the site using the term: phishing.

Doc ID:		INF21854
Updated:		11/6/2012

On the radio this morning, there was an announcement that there is a scam email going out that uses the IRS logo and states that it is regarding refunds.
Just opening email will give access to entire computer.
They said, IRS states they never email anyone regarding refunds.
I am researching this and will post more info as I have it.
Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft
The Internal Revenue Service has issued several recent consumer warnings on the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo by scamsters trying to gain access to consumers’ financial information in order to steal their identity and assets. When identity theft takes place over the Internet, it is called phishing.
Suspicious e-Mail/Phishing
Phishing (as in “fishing for information” and “hooking” victims) is a scam where Internet fraudsters send e-mail messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information that can be used to steal the victims’ identity. Current scams include phony e-mails which claim to come from the IRS and which lure the victims into the scam by telling them that they are due a tax refund.
Phishing and Other Schemes Using the IRS Name
The IRS periodically alerts taxpayers to, and maintains a list of, phishing schemes using the IRS name, logo or Web site clone. If you've received an e-mail, phone call or fax claiming to come from the IRS that seemed a little suspicious, you just may find it on this list.
The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or any social media tools to request personal or financial information -read more here:
http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=217794,00.html