The Amarillo Police Department has received several phone calls from concerned citizens about being contacted for outstanding taxes. Scammers are spoofing the Amarillo Police Department’s phone number and claiming that the person will be arrested if they don’t pay over the phone. Scammers use spoofing to alter the phone number that shows up on a caller ID. They can make it look like they are calling from any business or phone number that they choose. The Amarillo Police Department will not call to enforce any outstanding IRS taxes. The IRS will never call and demand immediate payment on owed taxes and will always send a letter in the mail before contacting anyone. Never give your information out to anyone that calls you. If you feel like you might owe taxes you can call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. If you have had a monetary loss due to a scam you can call the police department to report it. You can report any attempted scams to the Federal Trade Commission at www.ic3.org.
