Callers posing as Internal Revenue Service agents have stolen $80,000 from Arizona residents since January in a nationwide scam that continues to grow both in volume and in threat.
Federal authorities said Wednesday that as many as 1,100 people across the country have lost $5 million to con artists who tell people they will be arrested if they don't immediately pay thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.
The callers target people from all walks of life and backgrounds and often follow up initial threats with secondary calls. These follow-up calls are said to be from police officers en route to arrest the victim, authorities said during a Phoenix news conference to alert the public.
And nobody is immune from the scam, not even IRS agents.
"I was targeted," said special agent Lisa Sukenic, who works in the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Phoenix. "They said there was a warrant out for my arrest."
Sukenic said her husband, who is an assistant U.S. attorney and prosecutes financial crimes, took the call from the scam artist. Sukenic said the caller became aggressive when challenged over details and hung up. An hour later, Sukenic said a man called back and claimed police were on their way "to put me in handcuffs."
In May, authorities described the extortion scheme as biggest scam of its kind. The callers rely on fear to persuade people to purchase Green Dot MoneyPak cards and wire thousands of dollars to prearranged accounts. They often insist on staying on the phone while the victim drives to a store and completes the transactions.
The MoneyPak cards are similar to debit cards that purchasers can load with cash. The scam artists require victims to purchase the cards and then give them the account information, allowing them to access the money immediately.
IRS agents don't ask for payments using prepaid debit cards or wire transfers. They also don't ask for credit cards over the phone and do not make cold calls to taxpayers regarding problems.
Federal authorities said Wednesday that stores selling the MoneyPak cards, including Walmart, where some victims have been directed to purchase the cards, have been alerted to the scam. Authorities said officials at a Phoenix Safeway recently advised a customer to contact the IRS before it would complete the transaction.
The callers use phone numbers with Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles area codes and answer returned calls as "Internal Revenue Service."
One phone number currently used in the scam is 202-241-6119. On Wednesday, a message in heavily accented English said: "Thank you for calling Internal Revenue Service. We are unavailable at the moment." Phone records showed the number is an unregistered cellphone.
An earlier number used in the scam is registered with magicJack.com, a digital phone system that allows worldwide users to hook up phones through computers for free.
Federal authorities said the scam artists are often prepared with information about the people they are calling, including birth dates and Social Security numbers. They also provide bogus employee identification numbers as proof of their IRS credentials.
In some variations on the IRS theme, callers will target foreign-born residents with threats of deportation.
The U.S. Department of Treasury's Inspector General for Tax Administration investigates crimes involving the IRS. Matt Richards, assistant special agent in charge, on Wednesday refused to provide details of the investigation, which began in 2013.
Richards would not say if authorities have determined where the scam originated, if it was foreign-based or centrally organized.
Other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, have reported similar scams.
"This is the largest-scale IRS impersonation scam we have seen," Richards said. "People are being bilked out of their life savings."
Scottsdale resident Naotaka Kumagai said he got a series of calls last month, each more threatening than the last.
"At the beginning, I kind of noticed he was very, very suspicious," Kumagai said. "They called six times. The first thing they said was that they had a legal action against me."
He said the callers told him he owed about $2,000 for a miscalculation in his 2011-2012 taxes. They also demanded his cellphone number so they could stay in contact with him while he followed their instructions to send them the money.
When he balked, Kumagai said the callers repeatedly told him the sheriff or local police would soon make contact.
"No police, no sheriff is going to contact me about a miscalculation in my taxes," he said, adding that when he called the IRS to report the scam, he got a message saying the phone mailbox was full. "They must be getting a lot of calls."
Federal authorities say there is one sure way for taxpayers to deal with the scam calls: Hang up.
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