The Cass County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public about a current scam. Officials say a person claiming to be from the IRS is calling people and telling them they have outstanding tax debt and that they must immediately go to a convenience store and load money on a Green Dot card to pay this debt. The scammer claimed his name was “Sam Thomas,” and had a middle-eastern accent. Authorties warn THIS IS A SCAM. Simply hang up the phone.

Earlier this month, the IRS reported the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) had received 90,000 complaints through its telephone hotline. To date, TIGTA has identified approximately 1,100 victims who have lost an estimated $5 million from these types of scams.

As a taxpayer, it is important for you to know that the IRS:

• Never asks for credit card, debit card or prepaid card information over the telephone.
• Never insists that taxpayers use a specific payment method to pay tax obligations
• Never requests immediate payment over the telephone and will not take enforcement action immediately following a phone conversation. Taxpayers usually receive prior notification of IRS enforcement action involving IRS tax liens or levies.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:

• If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue, if there really is such an issue.
• If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484.
• If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.

Taxpayers should be aware that there are other unrelated scams (such as a lottery sweepstakes) and solicitations (such as debt relief) that fraudulently claim to be from the IRS.