Last Friday, Cassopolis’ Marilyn Fry received a phone call that would make anyone panic this time of year.

“This lady said that the IRS was planning a lawsuit against me,” Fry recalled. “However, I could take care of it ahead of time by sending them a check.”

The person on the other end of the line, who Fry said had a heavy accent, gave her a number she could call to find out where to send the money, as well as the exact amount she needed to pay. Naturally, such a strange request raised a red flag, promoting her to do some investigation into the person who gave her the call.

Using the Star 69 caller tracing service, she discovered the number that called her was different from the number she was given to call. Having dealt with potential scammers in the past, she decided to report the incident to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

“We had a good laugh about it, but somebody out there who maybe crossed the line on their last income tax could have been scared by the call,” Fry said. “It could be very taken seriously by someone who is
seriously struggling.”

With tax season in full swing, scammers have adopted a new tactic to defraud people out of potentially large sums of money. Using a combination of new technology and old fashioned social engineering, criminals have begun making phone calls posing as representatives from IRS or similar government institutions, making phone calls to private residences asking for money or personal information to “rectify” claimed errors on an individual’s tax return.

According to the sheriff’s office, these calls are just the latest variation on a routine problem for county law enforcement and residents, said Undersheriff Richard Behnke.

“It’s a pretty consistent number of complaints we get, though the type of scheme is different each time,” Behnke said. “Most scams are just trying to get personal information, such as your social security number or bank account numbers. Or they’re just trying to get you to send them money.”

Officials with the sheriff’s office have helped raise awareness about these crimes in the past, including holding seminars at the Cass County COA.

No matter the approach, most fraudulent callers obtain a list of potential targets the same ways, through contact information collected from surveys or through public information, Behnke said. While anyone is at risk of being a potential victim, it’s often the elderly who suffer the most from these types of attacks, as they are the most likely to respond to daytime calls.

“If they attempt to scam a 1,000 people and only are successful once, they still did a good job,” Behnke said.

There are some basic things that residents can do to protect themselves from becoming a victim of these attacks, though. One rule of thumb to be aware of is that banks or governmental agencies never make requests for personal information over the telephone. While scammers have begun using technology to fool caller IDs to display “Internal Revenue Service” or other false identities, these organizations only contact citizens through official, postmarked correspondence, Behnke said.

“If they’re calling you, it’s your job to verify their identity; it’s not their job to verify yours,”
Behnke said.

One popular tactic scam callers use is to impersonate the identity of a relative, claiming in desperate need of money. In these situations, the recipient of the call should ask the caller to meet them at police station to make the transaction, Behnke said.

“If they’re truthful with their intentions, they should have no problems meeting with you at the department,” he said.

If someone is worried that their personal information has been leaked out, they should begin to closely monitor their bank statements. They can also request a credit check from one of the three national credit agencies, which are required to issue a free report once a year.

Local victims of telephone or other types of scams are encouraged to file a police report with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, which can be reached at (269) 445-2481.