Bloomington residents are reporting a wave of telephone scams in which callers pose as members of the Internal Revenue Service and demanding money and threatening arrest.
The Bloomington Police Department has received about a dozen such reports during the past two weeks, BPD Lt. Brad Seifers said.
The most recent case involved an elderly Bloomington woman who lost $8,000 after receiving a phone call from man with a strong eastern Indian accent who identified himself as an IRS agent.
The man demanded the woman purchase $8,000 worth of Apple gift cards to pay for her bills and threatened to send police to her house to arrest her if she didn’t comply. The woman went to two different locations and purchased the gift cards.
When the scammers called back, she read the numbers on the back of the cards over the phone.
The woman’s daughter called authorities Wednesday morning after she found out about the scam.
All of the numbers in calls such as this one appear to come from outside the U.S., Seifers said.
“They’re using numbers we can’t call back and trace,” Seifers said.
Seifers said he has contacted the IRS to provide information about the recent incidents.
A couple BPD officers have also received such calls but have not been able to identify the callers, Seifers said.
“Luckily, most people are not falling for it,” Seifers said.
He urges the public not to be fooled by tax scam artists.
“The IRS does not call and demand money over the phone,” Seifers said.
Don’t be fooled: The IRS will never do these things:
The IRS website lists several things the IRS will never do over the phone:
Demand immediate payment over the phone or call about taxes without mailing you a bill first.
Threaten to have you arrested for not paying something.
Demand that you pay without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount.
Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as Apple gift cards.
Demand credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
Samantha Schmidt
