Although I have written at length on debt collection scams, I am still amazed by the fact that they continue to proliferate. You’d think the word would get out far enough so that people would be on their guard against these Frauds-R-Us franchises. Not so.
In yesterday’s (January 22, 2016) L.A. Times, David Lazarus discussed the recent proliferation of scam calls on cell phones. He quoted Nadege Joly’s comment on the regular cell phone calls she receives from Scamway representatives: “‘I get a scam call on my cellphone at least once a week,’ she told me. ‘Each time, they say I owe them money and I’m going to get in trouble if I don’t pay.’” Nadege’s experience is very common.One interesting twist in the tactics this wave of crooks uses is a tax scam:
An especially popular racket last year was the IRS scam, which involved a call supposedly from the tax agency and a threat of arrest if overdue taxes weren’t immediately paid. The IRS said this week that such calls are now the most common tax scam. Since 2013, it said, at least 5,000 victims have been bilked out of more than $26 million.
Holy fake tax liability, Batman! 5,000 victims paid out $26,000,000! That’s an average of $5,200 per victim. That’s a 16% down payment on a bottle of 50-year old Macallan.
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