KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Tax day may have come and gone, but the tax scams just keep on coming.
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department says they’ve received several complaints this week from citizens who have received calls from scammers claiming to be from local law enforcement, threatening to take people to jail if they don’t pay.
Undersheriff Pauli Matyas said recipients of those calls shouldn’t believe a word they say. He said their standard advice is to never give out credit card numbers or any other numbers unless you initiate the call.
IRS spokesman Luis Garcia said the scammers tap into commercial data bases that help them sound more authentic when they call you, and that can be scary. Garza said they may already know your social security number, the names of your children and other information from those data bases.
They may make it look like their call is coming from the IRS or from police by spoofing — adjusting their phone so it gives a fake caller identification.
Garcia said there are three things a real IRS agent will never do: They never threaten, never demand immediate payment, and never require that you pay through wire transfers or any other specific payment methods.
