Phone Scam Targeting Wisconsin Taxpayers

Taxpayers in Wisconsin are reporting threatening phone calls from imposter Internal Revenue Service agents that at first appear to be coming from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue office in Milwaukee.

Phone scams from people pretending to be IRS agents are nothing new, but scammers are now making it look like calls are coming from federal tax offices, according to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection spokesman Jerad Albracht calls it “caller ID spoofing.”

“These scammers know that people will take a call from a government agency seriously; and even if they question it a bit when they receive it, they’ll at least pick up the phone and go with it,” Albracht said.

The calls appear to be coming from the Milwaukee office, but Albracht said that’s not the case.

“There has been technology out there for a while that allows scammers to make the caller ID say whatever they want it to say, both the words and the numbers in it,” Albracht said.

The scammers, posing as IRS agents are claiming that those receiving the calls owe back taxes and that they must pay immediately using iTunes or Amazon gift cards, wire transfers or PayPal.

Albracht said neither the United States or Wisconsin Department of Revenue would contact taxpayers by phone. Also, he said state or federal tax collectors never demand immediate payment and certainly not via iTunes or Pay Pal.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to identify Jerad Albracht as the spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.