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Fake IRS phone calls top tax scams in U.S.

Xinhua, March 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Phone impersonation scam is on the top of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's "dirty tax scams" list this year, said a federal investigator said in testimony before the U.S. Congress on Thursday.

"Phone impersonation scam is the largest and most pervasive impersonation scam that we're aware of, and it has claimed thousands of victims in every state," said Timothy Camus, the deputy inspector general for investigations at the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

According to the investigator, the TIGTA has received over 366, 000 reports of the harassing phone calls made by fake IRS agents demanding payments and threatening jail time.

As of March 9, 2015, over 3,000 individuals have been victimized by this scam by paying a total of 15.5 million U.S. dollars, or an average of 5,000 dollars per victim. Endite