911 call center warns of wave of scam calls

Clark County’s 911 call center is seeing a surge of calls regarding scam calls from grifters posing as IRS employees, and the county warned this is a common scam, and in no way legitimate.

The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency said the impersonators are threatening people with arrest if they don’t pay some supposed fee immediately.

CRESA said most of the reports they received Tuesday morning were from elderly people. The scam calls come from different area codes around the country, and the scammers are calling specific individuals saying they’re giving “final notice” for a tax payment, on pain of arrest.

CRESA recommended anyone who gets such a call to not provide any information and hang up immediately.

The IRS said the scammers may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter caller ID signatures to make it look like the IRS is really calling. Targets are told they must pay through a gift card or wire transfer, among other tactics.

Furthermore, the IRS doesn’t initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information.

More information about tax scams and reporting them is available through the IRS’s website, at www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scamsconsumer-alerts.