Phony Telephone call is one of the most common and effective defrauds nowadays. On Tuesday, Wisconsin Police Officer, Kyle Roder, received a cellphone message from someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service.
The scammer tried to take advantage of an unsuspecting cop. He threatened the cop to be arrested if he will not give his sensitive information and cough up a fine for a ‘fraud’ charge.
Opposing to the man’s claim that Roder was hours from being arrested, the department says they do not get arrest warrants from the IRS.
Officer Roder was familiar with phone scams. He even helps educate local elderly residents about these kinds of scams to help them avoid being victimized.
Before their conversation, Roder already recognized that it was a con job when he got a warning from the ‘IRS’ stating that he committed a fraud and needed to call immediately.
They proved that it was a scam when the fake IRS agent gave his name first as “James Maxwell,” then as “James Johnson.”
According to huffingtonpost.com, the Eau Claire Police Department does not suggest people lead on scammers like Officer Roder.
The IRS says there are five simple ways to determine if someone claiming to be an agent is trying to scam you:
The IRS will never:
- Call to demand immediate payment, nor will we call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.
- Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
- Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
- Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
- Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.
As of March 27, Officer Kyle Roder’s video has quickly gone viral, just six days after it posted. It has nearly 87,000 reactions, 158,000 shares and a massive 6.6 million views. In addition, the post has over 9,000 comments, many of which laud the officer’s actions. Other people commented that they had gotten similar calls.
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