JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The phone rings, the caller ID says the IRS. You answer, and hear bad news.
"We're going to come over right now and take you to jail? That's scary!" said Mike Jorgensen.
Jorgensen is a former IRS tax attorney, and says the scams this tax season are more clever than ever before.
"Organized crime has gotten into it and their levels of sophistication and the money they can throw at it are so much more significant," Jorgensen said.
Over the past two months, Action News has warned you about various tax scams targeting locals. In Putnam County, victims were told federal tax liens had been filed against them. In Clay County, victims say a man told them he was a deputy sent to arrest them for failing to pay various fees.
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Now scammers are targeting St. Johns County. On Friday, the Sheriff's Office warned that one of their own was a target and on their Facebook page, a woman named Donna claimed she also got a call, posting, "They threatened me with all sorts of things…I could never repeat the foul names they called me."
"Tackling it, overcoming it, I don't know if it can be done," Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen said finding those criminals is nearly impossible, because most are overseas and they're making lots of money.
The IRS said $14 million has been lost to scammers in just the past 16 months. But Jorgensen said you can avoid it by remembering this:
"No matter how good it looks, whether it's an email or a telephone conversation, that's not how the IRS operates and it never has," Jorgensen said.
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