Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is warning residents about phone scammers posing as IRS agents.
Residents throughout Illinois have been contacted by scammers pretending to be government officials claiming that the residents are under investigation or that they owe money to the IRS, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office.
The callers claim they are representatives of the federal government collecting unpaid taxes and instruct those they are calling to put money on a prepaid debut card and provide the number of the card over the phone, according to the statement.
The calls appear legitimate because the caller ID will identify the caller as IRS or display an (202) area code for Washington, D.C.
“The IRS will not seek money or personal information from you over the phone,” Madigan said in the statement. “If you receive a call like this, even if the caller ID shows a legitimate area code, hang up immediately.”
Madigan encourages recipients of these solicitations to contact the government agency in question to report the call. She also urged Illinois residents to report the scam to her Consumer Fraud Bureau at 1-800-386-5438 (Chicago), 1-800-243-0618 (Springfield) or 1-866-310-8398 (Spanish).
