The Watertown Police Department warns residents to be aware of an ongoing scam where a caller poses as an IRS official and threatens arrest if a payment is not sent.
Monday afternoon, the Watertown Police Department sent out the following information:
Please be advised there has been a recent phone scam where the scammers identified themselves as the IRS from a spoofed (fake) IRS phone number. The scammer demanded money over the phone and threatened the victim with arrest if they refuse.
The Watertown Police Department wants to advise residents to be suspicious of phone calls that involve money or ask for personal identifying information (DOB, SSN, checking account numbers). Whether it be the IRS threatening with arrest or the bank asking for personal information; most of these cases are scams. In these instances hang up with the caller and contact the main business line of the organization they claim to be with to verify their statements.
Caller ID can be tricked so do no assume that the call is legitimate because you recognize the phone number.
Please tell your friends and family so we can avoid scams like this in the future. Thank you
Got a call like that a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t ask for money or threaten arrest, but did say the IRS was contemplating filing a suit against me unless I called some number (it had a Washington, DC area code). I ignored it. That’s not how the IRS does business.