Phone scam call pandemic

While tutoring kids at a church, Jesus Zamora, a student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, got a phone call from an anonymous number. He answered and was told he committed tax fraud. The caller informed him that he’ll need to show to court. After the call, he panicked to the point of nearly crying. Later, he told his mother what happened, and his mother told a bother-in-law. He told Zamora it was a scam and to not answer again.

The voice he heard on the other line is called a robocall, it’s a prerecorded message that automatically plays once a call connection is secured. Although many of these robocalls are legal, consumers must consent for autodialed, prerecorded, or artificial voice calls before receiving the message.

“There are exceptions to these rules, such as for emergencies involving danger to life or safety,” the FCC’s ‘Stop Unwanted Robocalls and Texts’ page said.

Zamora isn’t the only UTRGV student whose been on the receiving end of the IRS scam calls.

Around mid-September, Kathryn Mendoza, a business administration graduate student, was at work when she got the call. Although the scammer told her she was missing information on her taxes and owed hundreds of dollars to them, she didn’t believe it. However, the caller continued to contact her multiple times. Mendoza became annoyed as she knew the IRS wouldn’t communicate via telephone calls. She’d heard of such scams from the news and her parents, who warned her about the issue. Mendoza also worked at AmeriCorps, where she would work with parent’s tax information and she was trained to warn them on these scams. To combat the issue, a friend told her about an app by the name of Robokiller that is designed to block scam calls.

“My advice is … if you see a scam, you can go ahead and look up the number online. It’ll tell you if it’s a scam number,” Mendoza said. “Google, usually that works. I’ve done that multiple times, or if you’re on the phone with them. My parents have done this where they ask to speak with their manager or ‘what’s the name of your manager’ and they get scared on the phone.”

The IRS said it does not contact taxpayers by digital media to request personal or financial information. During the call, the scammer states they’re with the IRS and tell a victim they have to pay now. They’ll attempt further with false claims for tax credit, rebates or refunds based on their social security benefits. In some cases, the impersonators intimidate and bully people into paying this tax bill by Threatening to arrest or deport the victim if they don’t comply.

“Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scams,” the IRS’ Tax Scam/Consumer Alters page said.

After a report is made to the authorizes, they can find scammers. For example, on Sept. 4, a Fontana, Cali., man was tricked by Ailing Lu and Ji Hyun Lee, both 25 and from Los Angeles, who threatened to arrest the victim if he didn’t pay $2,200 in Target gift cards, according to the Fontana Police Department. The victim did give the cards to the women. The man later reported the scam to Fontana police and detectives traced the gift cards to a Target in the Los Angeles area, where around $900,000 worth of items were purchased. Then, Lu and Lee were arrested and charged on a conspiracy to commit crime. Both women were later released on bail.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, around 1.4 million frauds were reported in 2018. People reported losing $1.48 billion that same year. To report a scam call, visit https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1.