IRS phone scams and may other types of phone fraud, continue in many areas, so I wrote this post to remind you what to look out for, and how to avoid being a victim.

If the scammers pick your phone number, you’ll receive a call from someone claiming to be an investigator for the IRS.

These callers have called numbers in almost every state in the US and are very clever and persuasive. They target taxpayers, and also recent immigrants.

You are told that you owe money to the IRS, or that there is a large tax lien against you that may include criminal charges. They instruct you that this money must be paid immediately through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer.

If you aren’t cooperative, the caller may become hostile and threaten you with arrest, deportation, or suspension of your driver’s license.

You might hear background noise on the call that sounds like it’s coming from a call site. Some of the callers use equipment which changes the number appearing on your caller ID, to the actual IRS toll-free number.

The caller may know the last four digits of your social security number. They might use very common names like John Smith or Tom Brown.

You may also receive a fake email before the call, that appears to come from the IRS.

• Power/Electric Company Calls

Someone will call claiming to be an employee of your Power/Electric company. They will state that a recent electric bill hasn’t been paid, and will threaten to shut off your power immediately unless this bill is paid. You will be told you have to make an immediate payment through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer.

• Foreign Lottery & Nigerian Lottery Scams

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says that consumers are scammed out of millions of dollars every year by solicitations for prizes, and foreign lotteries.

Many of the scammers are in Canada, and offer chances to win foreign lotteries from places like Europe and Australia. They offer chances to win big lump sum prize amounts, with much better odds than American lotteries. Naturally, scammers take care of their safety, and by sending emails to their victims, they change their own IP address. By the way, if you do not know, then the IP address and location of the Internet user can be easily seen using the ip-locations org service, but only if VPN or proxy are not used.

• IRS

The IRS states that they will never ask for credit card numbers over the phone, and they also don’t ever ask a taxpayer to use a pre-paid debit card or wire transfer.

They also don’t threaten to have you deported, or arrested. If there is a tax problem, their first contact will usually be by mail.

In some cases, after the scammers or you hang up after receiveing a threatening call, you may get another call soon afterwards, from someone claiming to be from the police – those calls can also show a police department number on your caller ID. So that is a sure sign that both calls where a scam.

The IRS also says they don’t contact taxpayers by email or text messages, asking for personal and financial information. They don’t ask for PIN numbers or passwords.

The irs.gov website can give you more information, and has links to actually report scams. You can also call their regular number of 1-800-829-1040 if there any issues with your taxes.

• Power/Electric Company

Electric Utility companies will usually not ask for personal information over the telephone, unless you called them first.

They also don’t send emails threatening to close your account.

Don’t give personal information to anyone who calls you, including any kind of account numbers, passwords, social security numbers, or credit card numbers.

• Foreign Lottery and Other Scams

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) says that it’s illegal to play a foreign lottery, either over the phone, or by mail.

Most of the phone operations are phony – you won’t receive the promised lottery tickets.

If you give one of these callers your credit card number, you’re making a big mistake. They will probably make unauthorized charges and leave you with a big bill.

The odds of winning a foreign lottery are extremely slim – just like with American lotteries.

Some signs of a scam are claims that you’ve won a prize, or a special promotion. If they say they just need to put the shipping charges on your credit card, and you give them the number, they may put hundreds of dollars in unauthorized charges on your card.

Don’t ever send money by money transfers – you won’t be able to dispute fraudulent charges.

Don’t give anyone your credit card number over the phone.

Robocalls, or automated calls coming from machines, are usually illegal.

My advice is to not even answer the phone unless you see the number of someone you know on your caller ID.