{"id":540,"date":"2023-06-07T13:47:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/?p=540"},"modified":"2023-06-07T13:47:50","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:47:50","slug":"how-to-identify-an-irs-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/how-to-identify-an-irs-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Identify an IRS Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Impersonating an IRS agent is one of the most popular strategies for scam artists, according to the Better Business Bureau.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Here are a few things you should know to protect yourself:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Tip 1: Expect a letter first<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">If you get a letter from the IRS that looks suspicious, go to the IRS website,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: #0f856f;\">www.irs.gov<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">, and search the form number on the notice. If something doesn&#8217;t look right, you can call the IRS help desk at 1-800-829-1040 to question it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Tip 2: Never over email<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Don&#8217;t respond to any email communications supposedly from the IRS. Don&#8217;t click on any links. Delete the email or forward it to\u00a0phishing@irs.gov\u00a0to help catch the scammers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Tip 3: Proper phone call etiquette<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">If you get a call from the IRS or an IRS debt collector, politely ask for the employee&#8217;s name, badge number, and phone number. They shouldn&#8217;t hesitate to provide this information. You should then end the call and dial the IRS at 1-800-366-4484 to confirm the person&#8217;s identity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Tip 4: Check in-person visits<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Never provide sensitive information nor confirm information they may have without first independently verifying they are legitimate representatives of the IRS. If you have concerns, call the IRS at 1-800-366-4484 to confirm the person&#8217;s identity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Need a knowledgeable expert on your side? Contact us today at (402) 932-8815!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; color: black;\">W.E. Stevens PC<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Impersonating an IRS agent is one of the most popular strategies for scam artists, according to the Better Business Bureau. Here are a few things you should know to protect yourself: Tip 1: Expect a letter first If<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":542,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions\/542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westevens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}