HomeMy WebLinkAbout14-04-01 IRS Financial Scam
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BAKERSFIELD POLICE
DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Greg Williamson, Chief of Police
Contact: Sergeant Joe Grubbs
Public Information Officer
661-326-3803
jgrubbs@bakersfieldpd.us
For Immediate Release April 1, 2014
The Bakersfield Police Department is notifying the public of an emerging financial scam.
In the past several weeks detectives have been seeing incidents of victims, primarily in
the Hispanic and Middle East Indian immigrant communities, reporting that they have
been contacted on the telephone by suspects purporting to be representatives of the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The suspects tell the victims that they have past due
IRS fines and instruct the victim to purchase a pre-paid credit card in order to pay the
fine. The victim provides the suspect with the pre-paid credit card information over the
phone and the money is transferred to the suspect.
The Police Department is reminding the public to not provide any information over the
telephone to any individual who initiates the call to you. If you receive a call from
someone identifying themselves as a representative of the IRS or any other
governmental agency ask for a call back number that can be used to contact them. For
further details about this scam please refer to this IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Warns-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam
Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to call the Bakersfield Police
Department at (661) 327-7111.
You can now send an anonymous text message to the Bakersfield Police Department. It’s quick and it’s easy.
Simply enter 274637 into your phone and text BPDCRIMES along with your message. The text is sent to the
police department and the sender remains completely anonymous.
Tips can also be anonymously sent through the smartphone “TipSubmit” mobile App or via email at
https://www.tipsubmit.com.