The Pella Police Department warns local residents of an ongoing nationwide telephone-based scam that has targeted citizens within the Pella community.
Over the last week, the Pella PD has received multiple reports of IRS or back owed taxes scams.
The steps of the back owed taxes or money scam are:
1. The scammer calls and presents a problem (e.g. owing back taxes, have unpaid tickets, or somehow have a financial obligation that must be satisfied).
2. The scammer adds an imminent personal threat such as arrest, issuance of an arrest warrant, or additional fines.
3. The scammer insists that a person must act within a short period of time such as 20, 30, or 60 minutes. This is a tactic designed to create panic and urgency to act, and to eliminate time to think, time to refer the issue to a friend or family member, or to check the legitimacy of the issue at hand.
4. The final step is when the scammer introduces a quick payment as the way to eliminate the “problem.” Not always, but many times this proposition comes in a follow-up call.
In all business transactions, calls, and debt collections that are not self-initiated it is recommended that citizens verify the company, check the legitimacy of the claim, and then re-initiate the call to the company’s publicly listed contact number.
Additionally, no matter how insistent the caller is, always investigate the circumstances the caller introduces prior to making any payments or sharing personal information. Do not advertise this step to the caller, and if they sense an impending follow up call, they should not be allowed to persuade a person out of doing so.
Please understand that these scammers are numbered among the lowest of criminals and are very good at what they do. The thieves are well practiced, they are very convincing, and they turn a considerable profit by taking advantage of the good-heartedness of kind and trusting people. The likelihood of ever recovering money after releasing it in a scam is very low.
The IRS Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts page here serves as a good resource to familiarize oneself with contemporary methods of fraud. The website also has a mechanism for reporting
these scams should a resident be contacted by someone they suspect of being a fraudster.
Victim of fraud, including those who have given out bank or personal information, or personal information has been accessed improperly should contact their local law enforcement agency, the financial institution attached to the information, or make a report on www.ic3.gov (a victim geared reporting webpage). For additional information on fraud please refer to www.ic3.gov and www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com.