Frauds that involve convincing taxpayers to pay fraudsters steep tax bills, which often start with a series of bothersome robocalls to a victim's cell phone, rose 242% in 2018.
You're not imagining it. Tax-related extortion schemes, many of which that start with robocalls and hinge on convincing you to pay taxes to scammers posing as the IRS, rose 242% year-over-year, according to the latest data from the FBI.
"We can't arrest our way out of this situation because there are too many con men out there," said Steven D'Antuono, section chief of the FBI's D.C.-based financial crimes section. The scams typically start with an automated call to the victim's cell phone, including a dire warning about taxes owed. If the individual calls back, fraudsters then work to convince the taxpayer that he or she must immediately pay the sum.
A criminal can net a few thousand dollars in a single, successful theft, he said, and they have"gotten very, very aggressive of late. We've heard a lot of reports of threats that they're going to come to [victim's] house, they're going to arrest them."
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