{"id":11683,"date":"2016-08-20T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T21:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/?p=11683"},"modified":"2016-08-20T13:46:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T18:46:08","slug":"irs-warns-of-back-to-school-scams-encourages-students-parents-schools-to-stay-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/2016\/08\/20\/irs-warns-of-back-to-school-scams-encourages-students-parents-schools-to-stay-alert\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS Warns of Back-to-School Scams; Encourages Students, Parents, Schools to Stay Alert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-23472\" title=\"Internal Revenue Service - IRS\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/irs_logo-200x162.jpg\" alt=\"Internal Revenue Service - IRS\" width=\"200\" height=\"162\" \/><strong>Atlanta, GA<\/strong> &#8211; The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers against telephone scammers targeting students and parents during the back-to-school season and demanding payments for non-existent taxes, such as the \u201cFederal Student Tax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People should be on the lookout for IRS impersonators calling students and demanding that they wire money immediately to pay a fake \u201cfederal student tax.\u201d If the person does not comply, the scammer becomes aggressive and threatens to report the student to the police to be arrested.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Scams.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-333927\" title=\"Scams\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Scams-480x281.jpg\" alt=\"Scams\" width=\"480\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><!--more-->As schools around the nation prepare to re-open, it is important for taxpayers to be particularly aware of this scheme going after students and parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCriminals pose as the IRS to trick victims out of their money or personal information,\u201d said IRS Spokesman Mark Green. \u201dStudents and parents don\u2019t let yourself get involved in a tax scam or be bullied by a Con artists,\u201d said Green.<\/p>\n<p>The IRS encourages college and school communities to share this information so that students, parents and their families are aware of these scams.<\/p>\n<p>Scammers are constantly identifying new tactics to carry out their crimes in new and unsuspecting ways. This year, the IRS has seen scammers use a variety of schemes to fool taxpayers into paying money or giving up personal information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some of these include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Altering the caller ID on incoming phone calls in a \u201cspoofing\u201d attempt to make it seem like the IRS, the local police or another agency is calling<\/li>\n<li>Imitating software providers to trick tax professionals&#8211;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/uac\/newsroom\/new-phishing-scheme-mimics-software-providers-targets-tax-professionals\" >IR-2016-103<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Demanding fake tax payments using iTunes gift cards&#8211;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/uac\/irs-warns-taxpayers-of-summer-surge-in-automated-phone-scam-calls-and-requests-for-fake-tax-payments-using-itunes-gift-cards\" >IR-2016-99<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Soliciting W-2 information from payroll and human resources professionals&#8211;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/uac\/Newsroom\/IRS-Alerts-Payroll-and-HR-Professionals-to-Phishing-Scheme-Involving-W2s\" >IR-2016-34<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\u201cVerifying\u201d tax return information over the phone&#8211;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/uac\/Newsroom\/Consumer-Alert-Scammers-Change-Tactics-Once-Again\" >IR-2016-40<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Pretending to be from the tax preparation industry&#8211;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/uac\/Newsroom\/Consumers-Warned-of-New-Surge-in-IRS-Email-Schemes-during-2016-Tax-Season-Tax-Industry-Also-Targeted\" >IR-2016-28<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you receive an unexpected call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here are some of the telltale signs to help protect yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The IRS Will Never:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Call to demand immediate payment using a specific payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer. Generally, the IRS will first mail you a bill if you owe any taxes.<\/li>\n<li>Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.<\/li>\n<li>Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.<\/li>\n<li>Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you get a suspicious phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here\u2019s what you should do:<br \/>\nDo not give out any information. Hang up immediately.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Search the web for telephone numbers scammers leave in your voicemail asking you to call back. Some of the phone numbers may be published online and linked to criminal activity.<\/li>\n<li>Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use their \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.treasury.gov\/tigta\/contact_report_scam.shtml\" >IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting<\/a>\u201d web page or call 800.366.4484.<\/li>\n<li>Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Use the \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov\/\" >FTC Complaint Assistant<\/a>\u201d on FTC.gov. Please add \u201cIRS Telephone Scam\u201d in the notes.<\/li>\n<li>If you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS directly at 800.829.1040.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atlanta, GA &#8211; The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers against telephone scammers targeting students and parents during the back-to-school season and demanding payments for non-existent taxes, such as the \u201cFederal Student Tax.\u201d People should be on the lookout for IRS impersonators calling students and demanding that they wire money immediately to pay a fake [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[4671,1462,641,642,8114,1714,11235,2165],"class_list":["post-11683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","tag-atlanta-ga","tag-back-to-school","tag-internal-revenue-service","tag-irs","tag-mark-green","tag-scam","tag-tax-scam","tag-taxpayers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11684,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11683\/revisions\/11684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}