Once is enough for learning this life lesson
Ihear a lot of sad stories about people who have been wronged by scammers, but this one strikes me as especially heartbreaking.
Anne Withrow of Albuquerque is still dealing with the trauma of “that fateful Wednesday morning” when she caved in to a bogus IRS agent because she so feared his threat of immediate prison time.
It’s IRS season, so this type of scam is going to plague many a taxpayer. You might think you’d never fall for it, but Withrow probably thought the same thing, too.
In roughly the last three years, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the body that oversees the IRS, has received more than 1.8 million reports of calls from people impersonating IRS employees, and almost 10,000 victims have lost a total of nearly $50 million.
Repeat after me: the IRS does not contact people by phone or email about their taxes. Slam the receiver or hit delete if someone tries to tell you otherwise.
Back to Withrow. She said she recognized all the red flags when the caller on Dec. 21 told her she had been audited for the 20072014 tax years and owed the IRS $6,729. She had to pay up immediately, or face an $87,000 fine and five years in prison. In fact, the caller said, U.S. marshals were already on the way and planned to arrest her within 45 minutes.
Withrow is a computer system administrator for a federal agency who is “not an idiot” and who maintains a “learned suspicion” about a lot of things. But she also has chronic pain and other health problems, and the thought of being sent to the slammer was beyond terrifying.
“Red flags were going off — flares, claxons, everything,” she said. “But all of that went away when I thought about prison. “Two days would be more than I could tolerate — five years is way past consideration.”
Withrow knew she had paid her taxes correctly, and she knew something many of us probably don’t — that the IRS generally does not audit beyond a three-year period.
She also saw a huge flag when the caller told her to pay the supposed debt by purchasing iTune cards in $100 denominations and reading him the card numbers so he could cash in.
Withrow knew all this was highly suspect, but she assumed that if she complied, she could figure out a way to get the money back later. It was that vision of the U.S. marshals that took over her better judgment.
The scam continued the next day, when the fake agent told Withrow he could make an appointment for her to meet with an agency representative in Albuquerque if she paid an additional $5,800. The agent had a heavy accent, and Withrow is hard of hearing and was having trouble communicating, so she decided to make the appointment herself.
That’s when a real IRS agent did some research and found that there was no audit and that the Albuquerque woman owed no money.
Withrow said the nearly $7,000 financial loss did not wipe her out, but the episode prompted her to seek counseling.
“I wish I just felt taken. Instead, I’m recovering from terror,” she said. “I think I’ve got PTSD over it.”
Take it from local H&R Block manager Ric Eberle: “The IRS will never try to connect on social media. (It) will never call demanding payment. They’ll always send a letter.”
No matter how much you might owe, the agency will not threaten to immediately have you arrested or demand that you pay taxes without providing the chance to question or appeal the amount.
If you’re not sure whether you owe taxes, you can call the IRS directly at 800-829-1040.
“Do not let fear overrule common sense,” Withrow says.
Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@ abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-255-9210.