$38,000 Tax Scam In Ohio Leads To New Hampshire

It's that time of the year when Uncle Sam wants his share of your money. Tax season is upon us. Although taxes aren't due for another month, the scammers are already busy.

A woman in Ohio was recently scammed out of $38,000 by a fake IRS agent. Cleveland.com reports the scammer called the woman and told her she owed unpaid taxes, and would need to pay them using gift cards from Best Buy.

Another website, patch.com, claims the unsuspecting woman was told to go get the cards and then read the card numbers to the "agent" over the phone. Obviously frightened, she purchased nearly $4,000 gift cards, and did as instructed.

The website says she later got suspicious and called police. After investigating, police found the gift cards were used at a Best Buy here in New Hampshire. Sadly due to a lack of evidence, the scammers got away with this one.

Obviously, be wary of any phone calls like this. Scammers usually like to prey on the elderly. So if you have a senior citizen in the family, or a neighbor, please remind them to be vigilant. Call police immediately if you suspect a scam is taking place or something doesn't seem right.

And according to the IRS website, the Internal Revenue Service does not initiate
contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media to request personal or financial information. Click HERE to know if it's really the IRS contacting you.