|
 Madigan’s office has seen an increase in the number of calls to
her office in recent weeks from Illinois residents who have been
contacted by scammers pretending to be government officials with
bogus claims that the call recipients are under investigation or
that they owe money to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a nationwide alert
this week about similar phone scams that “spoof” caller ID devices
into displaying what appear to be legitimate calls from government
agencies, with identifiers such as “FTC” and “IRS” or from the (202)
area code for Washington, D.C. Scam artists on the other end of the
line claim they are representatives of the federal government
collecting on a phony debt or unpaid taxes and instruct their
targets to put money on a prepaid debt cards and then to dictate the
number to the scammers over the phone. In a similar scheme, the
scammers inform their targets that they supposedly won a prize or
sweepstakes sponsored by the FTC or another government agency, but
to collect, the “winners” must send in a payment to cover shipping,
taxes or other upfront expenses.
[to top of second column] |
“Any time you are asked upfront for money in an unsolicited
call, that is a universal red flag for a scam. A government
office will not seek money or personal information from you over
the phone,” Madigan said. “If you receive a call like this, hang
up immediately.” Madigan suggested recipients of these
solicitations should contact the government agency in question to
report the call. She also urged Illinois residents to report the
scam to her Consumer Fraud Bureau at 1-800-386-5438 or by visiting
her website.
[FROM THE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL
LISA MADIGAN] |
