Widely reported and experienced is the phenomena of people receiving telephone calls and emails supposedly from the Internal Revenue Service. The telephone scam is a live voice or a call back message saying you have not filed your taxes or you have committed fraud with the IRS. The caller tells you a warrant will be issued for your arrest if you do not comply immediately and send money by wire or debit card transfer. Many people have followed these false directives; many of these people have lost thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars.
You need to know the IRS does not arrest people and so you should not fear this consequence. The IRS (and PA Revenue) have specific procedures and warnings as to actions they will take if in fact they do question anything on your tax return. You will receive letters and then certified mail and 30 days warning of action. This is more than enough time to retain an attorney to act on your behalf and in your best interests. If you get a phone call out of the clear blue, under no circumstance should you send any money to anyone representing themselves to be an IRS official. If in doubt, seek the advice of a lawyer. Our office does represent people who have tax obligations. We are available.
Speaking of a Montgomery County lawyer and the IRS, today I received an email at 2:09 A.M. from a scam entity which represents itself to be the IRS. In fact the email caption has the official IRS logo at the top. It tells me that I need to update my personal information with them by clicking on a link; most assuredly, the link will be a virus or a worm attempting to access personal information for someone sitting in Nigeria, Russia or other international spot. The element of urgency is created by demanding I do this within 48 hours or suffer a $250.00 penalty which fine will be sent to me in the mail. It concludes by “Thank you for cooperating in this security check.”
If these types of calls and emails scare the bejeezus out of you and you can’t stay calm, call us for a consultation. We can help you whether you owe money or do not owe money.