IRS & FBI Phone Scam Impacts Amarillo Residents

Over the past 3 days, the Amarillo Emergency Communications Center and Crime Prevention Center have reported receiving ten or more calls per day from Amarillo citizens that have been called by someone pretending to be a representative of the FBI or the IRS.  The caller identifies himself as an FBI or IRS representative, demanding payment for back taxes or fines, with the threat of arrest if the fines or back charges aren't paid.  This is a phone scam folks!

It's a common form of scam, and has been reported before, but a large increase has taken place over the past few days.

APD

"At this point, we are aware of one case in which one man, fearing he was going to be arrested, paid a small amount of money to the criminals.  The man described the caller as threatening and insistent.  In another case, a woman provided some limited information to but did not pay the fake FBI or IRS agent.  In some past incidents, the criminal callers have had information which could include dates of birth, social security numbers, or partial account numbers."

With the caller of the scam having this information, it comes across as legit...but NEVER give your information over the phone!

Fun fact:  NO AGENCY will EVER call demanding bank account information with the threat of arrest!

If you've received one of these calls and are the victim of a scam, hit the button below to file a police report of the incident.