Many Kentuckians this year have reported receiving phone calls from con artists pretending to be from the Internal Revenue Service. The national Better Business Bureau Council launched the ‘Scam Tracker’ program earlier this year. One of the most popular cons is from scammers who call people on the phone and tell them they owe back taxes. Heather Clary with the Central and Eastern Kentucky BBB Chapter says similar activity is seen in her office. “We receive several calls every day, maybe ten or twelve from consumers reporting this scam," she said. "As I said, it’s always new to someone."
Clary says the IRS is not in the business of contacting taxpayers by phone. She says this particular scam has been seen over the past couple of years. Clary says it’s a difficult challenge for the agency. “They’ve had an awfully hard time trying to catch up with these people behind the scam because they’re usually off shore somewhere,” said Clary. “They’re using computers to spoof the number they’re calling from, to make you believe they’re in the United States.”
Clary says tax scams account for almost a quarter of the reports, followed by debt collection and sweepstakes cons. ?
