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With tax season upon us, scammers resort to all kinds of ways to steal your information - and your tax refund.
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Hi. I'm Andrea Avery, United States Postal Inspector.
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Scammers often target victims by posing as IRS agents. You may think you would never fall for this,
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but more than 59 million Americans lost money in a phone scam last year.
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The scammer often goes to great lengths to come across as legitimate.
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They will use a technique called 'spoofing' to manipulate your caller ID so it appears the call is coming from the IRS.
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The phone call may be about a real or pretend tax payment, and the caller will threaten you with arrest if you don't pay them immediately.
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The caller may even give you a fake name or phony IRS badge number.
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The minute a so-called IRS agent asks you for personal information, you know it's a scam.
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Be smart. Knowledge is the best tool you can use to protect yourself against falling victim to an IRS scam.
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For more information on scams, visit USPIS.gov.