IRS Phone Scam Being Widely Reported In Wyoming

It may not be tax season, but a phone scam featuring bogus Internal Revenue Service agents is once again being widely reported Wyoming.

The scam features recorded phone messages from people claiming to be with the IRS. If the intended victim returns the call, the scammers, often in heavily accented English, demand immediate payment for supposed delinquent income taxes. The caller often takes on a very menacing tone, threatening immediate arrest, arrest of a spouse, and other dire consequences.

Some of the more sophisticated con artists will even recite the last four digits of the intended victim's Social Security number or spoof the IRS toll-free phone number on caller ID. In some cases, after the bogus IRS agents threaten the intended victim, they will hang up. A followup call will then be placed to the victim from someone pretending to be a police officer threatening arrest if payment for the alleged back taxes.

The followup call will also often feature a bogus caller ID number to make it look like it is coming from a law enforcement agency.

According to the IRS website, the agency generally contacts people first by mail and always gives taxpayers the right to challenge any claims that they owe money for delinquent taxes