First it was telephone calls from Indian call centers demanding payment to a certain sketchy bank account using a sketchy method such as MoneyGram or Walmart-2-Walmart, or recently the iTunes gift card tactic. Now that call centers are being raided, they are stepping up their game. Introducing bogus IRS letters! The latest and greatest illegal activity being carried out by dirt bags to get your money in their pockets.
Tax experts have taken a look at the new letters and determined that they are pretty much copies of the authentic IRS letters sent by the real Internal Revenue Service. These tax officials that identified these scam letter are based out of Nichols, Phanco, and Ball and Associates. They claim that this is the best con job they’ve seen so far, which is saying a lot since these scams have been going on forever, with scammer using a vast array of methods to get the job done.
These bogus letters require a trained eye to notice the minute details that are not present. This is bad for normal consumers since most people don’t know what these differences are. We are happy to get you up to speed though!
A real IRS letter has a barcode with your Social Security Number (SSN) at the top. The fake ones don’t.
Additionally, the IRS mails from a static address in Austin, Texas. Fakes are usually sent from P.O. Boxes.
The last hint that gives away the fakes is the lack to provide a space to respond in writing. The IRS wants to hear from you and know more, whereas scammers don’t have the patience to correspond. They like to pick the low-hanging fruit and demand payment for IRS back taxes.
And one last tip: the IRS will never demand payment right away, nor will they request a payment over the phone. Always consult a tax professional before you think about writing checks.