Originally published on Orcas Issues on February 9, 2016.
— from Sheriff Ron Krebs —
It is that time of year again when the annual IRS phone scam starts coming in. The Sheriff’s Office has received a number of phone calls the last few days regarding IRS scams.
The IRS will NEVER contact anyone by telephone, text or social media. If they need to contact you, they will do so with an official letter in the mail.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, hang up and do not call them back. If you are contacted and would like to report it, you can contact the IRS fraud hotline at 1-800-829-0433.
Please help spread the word about this year’s scam.
There is also a lot of e-mail scam asking for money stating that your wallet and phone were stolen while traveling in a foreign country and that you need money
to come home. If you reply to the e-mail they give you
information to wire money. My e-mail account was recently
hacked and this message was sent to every one on my list and then another e-mail account was created with my name with just one spelling error. guimonb instead of guimond
Please do not reply to any request for money.
Usually scammers don’t leave recorded messages but this one did just two days ago. (The caller ID on message simply said “Out of Area”) He did not use the initials IRS but did claim to be from the Federal Gov’t saying that we were going to be taken to court if we did not respond. So whoever the scammer is, he is alive and well so beware.