With tax season underway, malicious scammers are amping up their campaigns against us. If you are getting any type of unsolicited calls or texts, please delete them and deal with the tax service you normally use instead. Also don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognize, just let them go to voice mail. And even then, don't respond to unsolicited requests to call them back.
Today, I got a scam voicemail from a female voice with all the "ums" and "ahs" you would expect from a human, no strange accent, so pretty realistic. The call came from Lompoc, California with an 805 area code, or at least that's what caller ID identified. Here is the message:
"Hey, there, um, I guess I missed you. It's Cindy over at US Tax Experts. So I tried you last week as well and this is a followup notification regarding the new Zero Tax program that's now open for you. It looks like you have some past money that's due, which we can squash with this new deal. So basically it becomes noncollectable but you must elect to enroll this month, um, so give me a shout back at this number 858 ### #### again my number is 858 ### ####. Thank you, and I'll talk to you later today..."
The number she gave was different than the origination number, and I am now permanently deleting it. But thought I'd share so in case others who received similar calls are searching for answers about legitimacy, they can easily find this blog and delete the messages.