The Mansfield Police Department is warning consumers about what they are calling an Internal Revenue Service scam.
It's a scheme we're very familiar with. In fact, the NBC 5 Responds team received 27 complaints last year regarding similar cases.
Mansfield PD said a woman was contacted by multiple individuals. They claimed to be IRS agents, and one person identified himself as a Mansfield police officer.
According to police, the caller told her they were trying to collect payment for unpaid taxes, and if she didn't pay immediately, she would be arrested.
Mansfield PD said the callers were impostors, but they did find a way to spoof the Mansfield PD phone number. Unfortunately, the victim did purchase $2,500 worth of gift cards and gave the caller the card information.
This is just one of the many ways crooks are trying to capitalize on tax season.
A spokesperson with the IRS told us it's something they work to combat everyday and it starts with consumer awareness.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"They're scammers using technology to their advantage," said Raphael Tulino, IRS spokesman. "They're spoofing caller IDs, they could be calling from around the world if you will, acting like they're calling from a certain number by spoofing the ID number. The bottom line is that the IRS is not calling you out of the blue demanding tax payment. It's just not something we're ever going to do, and certainly not in a threatening manner."
As these scammers continue to try to catch us off guard, keep this in mind:
• The IRS does not send uninitiated e-mails or calls.
• The first correspondence with the IRS is normally a letter in the mail, it's not a random threatening phone call.
• If you get a random phone calls, the best thing to do is to hang up. Do not engage.
For some of the most common tax scams, click here.
