BILLINGS, Mont. – The Internal Revenue Service shared tips to avoid being the victim of a scam this holiday season.
“What we see during the holidays, or anytime there’s a lot going on, there’s always an uptick in scams,” Special Agent in Charge for IRS Criminal Investigations in the Denver Field Office Andy Tsui said.
Joe Simms, who works for the IRS as a public affairs officer, said he was recently targeted for a scam.
“I received a call from someone posing as an Amazon employee,” Simms said. “And they said there were unauthorized charges on my account. There were about three laptops and two Ipads. And they suspected that I was a victim of identity theft. That’s what they told me. So, they forwarded me over to someone who said they were a Treasury Agent. And then, ran off a badge number to seem somewhat official. And they said ‘yes’ we need to get some information from you.”
Simms said he didn’t give out any information. Instead, he hung up and called Amazon. They confirmed it was a scam and Simms changed his Amazon password.
“If it doesn’t sound right, just hang up,” Simms said.
Special Agent Tsui said they are seeing an increase right now in boiler room scams- a scheme that uses high-pressure sales techniques to convince people to invest in fictitious investments.
He said the caller often doesn’t try to get money right away. Instead, they try…
