Saugus incidents part of national scam

SAUGUS – Saugus Police are warning residents to exercise caution when picking up their phones after a nationwide telephone scam has hit close to home.According to a recent release from the Saugus Police Department, immigrants and elderly people are the targets of a recent “sophisticated telephone scam,” in which victims are told by a false agent that they owe money to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and that they must pay immediately through a prepaid debit card or wire transfer. The caller tells the victim that if they do not cooperate, they will be arrested, deported or their business or driver?s license would be suspended, often using hostile and insulting statements. Once the victim gives away a prepaid debit card number or makes a wire transfer, the money is gone and lost forever.Assistant Police Chief Ronald Giorgetti said the release was put forward to alert Saugus residents after two people came forward to report that they had received similar calls. Giorgetti said these two did not provide any information to the caller. “They were smart enough to realize it didn?t seem right and contacted us,” he said.Saugus Chief Domenic DiMella said in the release, “We need to get the message out: Police will never, ever threaten to arrest or deport anyone over unpaid taxes.”Giorgetti said the scam has been “fairly successful,” appearing all over the country, including closer to Saugus on the North Shore. He could not guess whether the calls were coming from inside or outside the continental United States.?If you are contacted by anybody, you want to be vigilant, and if it sounds suspicious or strange in nature, you should withhold information,” said Giorgetti.DiMella strongly urged residents in the release to never purchase prepaid debit cards to give to a caller and to never send a wire transfer to an unknown caller.The release added some tips on how to recognize a scam caller from IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel, who said, “Rest assured, we do not and will not ask for credit card numbers over the phone, nor request a prepaid debit card or wire transfer.”Werfel added that the first IRS contact with taxpayers on a tax issue is likely to occur via mail.Werfel said individuals should be aware of the following scammer behavior:u Scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers, using common names and surnames to identify themselves.u Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim?s Social Security Number.u Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it?s the IRS calling.u Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.u Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.u After threatening victims with jail time or driver?s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here?s what you should do:u 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.u 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 the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.u 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. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.