The Bossier Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a scam that has been circulating over the past few days.
Fraudulent representatives claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service are calling people here in Bossier Parish to tell them they have legal action against them and could go to jail if they don’t clear up the matter. Ultimately, they want unsuspecting victims to provide them with a payment of some sort in order to get out of being arrested…which is totally bogus.
This type of scam is nothing new and is unfortunately a way that criminals try and prey on folks to scare them into paying money to avoid being arrested.
Here are a few tips on how you can avoid being a victim of such a scam:
- The IRS and other legitimate business and organizations will not contact you by phone to tell you to pay them money in order to avoid going to jail.
- If you feel you are being scammed or something doesn’t feel right when someone contacts you by phone, mail or e-mail, it probably is a scam.
- Hang up, and directly contact the agency that supposedly contacted you…or go to the agency headquarters to discuss the matter. You may feel like you are being rude by taking such actions, but in this case, it’s okay.
- Never pay anything over the phone…unless you initiated the phone call and you are confident in the transaction and business with whom you are dealing.
- Remember, like with other types of scams (someone calling to say you’ve won the sweepstakes or a new car…and all you have to do is pay a small processing fee), IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS.
As always, you can contact your Bossier Sheriff’s Office at (318) 965-2203 to report any scam or criminal activity.
