SavingAdvice.com Blog
Tax and Social Security Scammers Add to Their Bag of Tricks
The phone rings. Caller ID shows a Washington, D.C. number. You answer and an official-sounding recording says you are in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Or, your social security number has been used in criminal activity. You need to respond quickly.
You are on your way to losing money to a scam artist if you obey the instructions.
“Consumers reported losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020, up from $1.8 billion in 2019,” states a report from the Federal Trade Commission. “Nearly $1.2 billion of losses reported last year were due to imposter scams, while online shopping accounted for about $246 million in reported losses from consumers.”