It’s not even April 15th yet!

The good news is that Rocco, my long-time accountant, is still open for business and was happy to report that my tax obligation this year was significantly less than in 2019.

The bad news was that literally one day after picking up my return, I came home to a voice mail with explicit instructions to call a designated number as it’s been determined that I owe thousands in back taxes.

The caller, whose dialect put him somewhere between Peshawar and Bangalore, warned that “significant penalties could result, including jail time” if I didn’t comply. While this was hardly the first time I’ve been contacted by scammers, the fraudsters traditionally waited until post April 15^th to begin dialing.

Sadly, it’s estimated that 1 in 10 people become the victim of some type of telephone-based financial scam each year. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the leading states for financial fraud are in order: California, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Delaware. Identity theft and fraud alone affected some 15.4 million people last year. To put that figure in perspective, it’s roughly 3 million more people than the entire population of Pennsylvania.

And anyone who knows the first thing about IRS enforcement procedure will tell you the IRS NEVER calls as their correspondence is conducted all by mail.

I immediately speed dialed Rocco to tell him and he pointed out that someone would have to have a 3-inch stack of letters from the IRS before any action was taken.  

Each year, the IRS publishes their “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams that folks may run into such as fake emails or “phishing,” text messages and even social media attempts to illegally procure personal information like bank accounts and Social Security numbers which are often used to file phony returns. Just last month I received an email from Bank of America claiming they had to verify my account information and could I please forward the routing numbers. The problem was the email featured a BOA logo in black and white and it was spelled “Banc” of America.

But back to the fraudsters.

Recently I read where an elderly couple on a fixed income was fleeced of nearly $10,000 on such a scam. Sadly, this was hardly an isolated incident as those over 65 are especially susceptible to these types of flim-flam artists.  

Experts recommend that clients not email any sensitive information to their preparers unless it’s through an encrypted portal.

I have made it a practice since 1990 to meet Rocco in person, thereby sidestepping any potential information breach. But still the calls come as scammers are nothing if not relentless.

I’ve decided the next voice mail I receive I’ll ask them what it costs to open a 7-Eleven. That should put a stop to it, albeit until next year.