Indiana State Police say the published public phone number of the law enforcement agency’s Evansville post is being spoofed.
A person notified the state police Monday morning that he had received a phone call from 812-867-2079 and the person calling identified himself as a police officer. The caller further explained that the intended victim owed money to the Internal Revenue Service and that, if he didn’t pay, he would be arrested.
Of course this is a common scam and the state police say they are not calling residents about their unpaid taxes.
As defined by TechTarget, call ID spoofing is a service that allows a caller to masquerade as someone else by falsifying the number that appears on the recipient’s caller ID display. Just as email spoofing can make it appear that a message came from any email address the sender chooses, caller ID spoofing can make a call appear to come from any phone number the caller wishes.
State police say the IRS will never:
- Call to demand immediate payment, nor will they call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.
- Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount owed.
- Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
- Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
- Threaten to bring in local police or other law enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.
They say if you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, authorities urge you to call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.
And 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 at 1-800-366-4484.
