By the Kent County Sheriff Department

Residents of Kent County are again being contacted by individuals claiming to be from the IRS. Below is an example of one of the voicemails:

“Hello, we have been trying to reach you. This call is officially a final notice from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). The reason of this call is to inform you that the IRS is filing a lawsuit against you. To get more information about this case file, please call immediately on our department number (gives number). Thank you.”

If you call the number provided, they will often ask you to obtain a prepaid credit card from a local store and provide them the credit card number.

This is another reminder that these are scams. Once the money is taken from the credit card, there is very little law enforcement can do to identify the suspect and recover the money. The suspect(s) are often not from the area and are difficult to identify because they use spoofed phone numbers that change frequently and are problematic to trace.

Other common scams include the following:

• A stranger sends you a check and asks you to cash the check and keep some of the money. A different variation of this is a Craig’s List transaction where the buyer “accidentally” overpays and asks you to cash the check and send them the amount of the overpayment. The banks will most likely cash the check and not realize the check is forged until several days later. You are then financially responsible for the amount of the bad check.
• We are also getting complaints of residents being contacted by a person saying they have found a virus on the resident’s computer. They ask for remote access to the computer and then hold the computer hostage until a ransom is paid.
• A person contacts you over the phone and claims to be your relative who has been arrested. They ask you to provide them with the number off a prepaid credit card for bond money.

If a stranger asks you to provide them with a prepaid credit number or iTunes card, it is a scam.

The best way to avoid these scams is to avoid talking to them on the phone. We are aware of all of these scams and the many variations in our area, and there is no reason to report them to law enforcement unless you are a victim who suffers a loss as a result of one of these calls.