IRS scam comes to Borderland

“When I got home from work, there was a message on my recording,” said West El Pasoan Socorro Rayas. She says she was shocked to hear the caller claim to be with the I.R.S. and say Rayas had a balance due immediately.

A similar message ABC-7 obtained a copy of had a caller saying, “Before there is arrest warrant issued in your name, with the county sheriff’s officers office, I want you or your attorney to give us a call back.”

Rayas says the call she received threatened to have her arrested, and place a lien on her property.

“Be prepared to face the legal consequences, as the issue at hand is extremely serious and time sensitive,” the message continued.

Rayas said it sounded very official. “If you don’t know it, you believe it, because it does, she sounds real professional.”

Law enforcers say the scammers often call from overseas, disguising numbers to look like they’re actually from the United States. They relay return calls through numbers actually in Washington, D.C., or other American cities.

Federal investigators say nearly three thousand people have already been victimized, scammed out of a combined $14 Million dollars.

Rayas said, “I did report them to the I.R.S. and they confirmed that it was a scam … I needed to report it to you guys, because I wanted to make sure that innocent people don’t fall for the scam.”

The I.R.S. says it will never call demanding immediate payment. It never requires payments to be maid with prepaid cash cards. It doesn’t ask for credit card numbers over the phone. And it doesn’t threaten to arrest people it contacts about back taxes. If you do owe taxes, you’ll usually receive a series of letters first.

If you get a call like Rayas got , the I.R.S. advises you not to argue and stay on the line any longer than you already have. Just hang up.