PARSIPPANY — The Parsippany-Troy Hills Police Department has been getting a large amount of calls regarding someone calling and claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This phone call is a scam. Please read below for more information on this scam and other similar ones.
IRS, Immigration, and other Government Organization Scams
If you receive a phone call that claims to be from the IRS, Immigration, or other Government Organizations which threaten you with immediate arrest or the issuance of a warrant unless you wire them money it is a scam. Even if the caller ID shows a legitimate government organization it can be a scam because modern technology lets criminals spoof, which means fake the name and number, which makes them appear legitimate. They may tell you that you owe various amounts in back taxes. They may threaten to deport you, which will not happen.
They may also claim that your identity was stolen and you need to pay a certain amount of money to redo your immigration paperwork, usually a few hundred, to a few thousand dollars. Whenever you get this type of call and you think it may me legitimate please search the internet for the phone number to the supposed agency that is calling you and call it back to inquire about the legitimacy.
Do not believe the number they are giving you to call back. You can also try doing a search of the phone number they are calling from on the internet and see if it is associated to scams. This method is not fool proof since they can fake the legitimate number to come up on caller ID as I said earlier. Never give personal information to anyone even if they request it. Never wire money, purchase visa gift cards, or money cards like Green Dot and give them the information. Once they have the wire information, gift card numbers, or Green Dot information they will get the money and you will not get it back.
Laws have changed that let the IRS call for outstanding taxes, but this has not started yet. The IRS will first send you notifications via mail. There is currently an effort underway to stop the IRS from being able to call you or have a collection agency call you to collect owed taxes. If and when that does pass we will update the public.
If you simply get the phone call, but do not send them any money you can report the phone call with the FTC at the below website.
If you are a victim of the scam AND send them money please call the Parsippany Police Departments non emergency phone number at (973) 263-4300.
