Is that IRS call or text a scam?

How to spot the IRS scam

• It threatens arrest, deportation or loss of your licence. The IRS says it never calls to threaten arrest. No genuine tax dispute is settled by police on a phone call.
• It demands a specific payment method: a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer. The IRS lists exactly those as things it will never ask for, because they are the ones that cannot be reversed.
• It arrived without a letter first. The IRS contacts people by post before anything else, so a phone call out of nowhere about a debt you have never seen in writing is the wrong order of events.
• It came by text or social media. The IRS does not initiate contact by text, and says outright that it never sends direct messages by social media.
• You are told not to hang up, or not to speak to anyone before paying. Isolation is the technique; a real notice is something you are meant to read at leisure and query.
• Caller ID shows the IRS. Numbers are trivially spoofed, and this scam depends on that display being believed.
• It asks for your Social Security number, card or bank details to "verify" you. The IRS already has your file.
• It promises a refund you did not file for. The IRS names that alongside the threats: it does not ring to tell you about a refund either.

What to do now

1. Hang up. You do not owe a caller an explanation, and ending the call costs you nothing even in the unlikely case it was genuine.
2. Pay nothing and share nothing, particularly a Social Security number, card number or bank detail.
3. Check for yourself at irs.gov, or ring the IRS on a number you looked up independently. If a balance is real it is on your account and in the post.
4. Report the impersonation to TIGTA, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, on 800-366-4484 or through their IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting form.
5. Send the details to phishing@irs.gov with "IRS Phone Scam" in the subject line, which is the format the IRS asks for, and forward a scam text to 7726 (SPAM).
6. If you already paid by gift card, keep the card and the receipt and call the card issuer immediately. Some balances are recoverable if the funds have not yet been drained.