Working at the FTC, I knew the call was a fake. I’d heard that IRS imposter scams are on the rise. Earlier that day, I’d even given a webinar on IRS imposter scams as part of the FTC’s Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week“But aren’t you going to at least call them back?” the kids persisted. “No,” I explained, “if I do, they’ll just pressure me for money or ask for information that they can use to get my money. That’s the way this scam works.”
So, what did I do instead? I wrote down the phone number so I could report the call to the FTC and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). If I’d been concerned that maybe I owed money to the IRS, I knew that I could check with the IRS directly by calling 1-800-829-1040.