Crime & Safety

Lakehurst Police Warn About 'IRS Telephone Scam'

From the Lakehurst Police Department:

The Lakehurst Police Department would like to advise the public and local businesses we have had an increase in citizens reporting receiving phone calls from alleged local law enforcement demanding money in the form of a money order and requesting routing numbers in denominations over $5,000.00.

 If the callers are told they do not have the asked amount they will then ask “To send whatever you can afford and do it now.” The callers will state they are from the IRS and request immediate payment of "back taxes."

The scam callers will be very persistent and may use personal data obtained over the internet in an attempt to convince you they are legitimate. With new cell phone technology and applications available like Spoof Card which features the ability to disguise numbers and change voices finding the scam callers has become virtually impossible.

The Lakehurst Police Department, local law enforcement as well as the Internal Revenue Service will never demand money over the telephone. 

If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to speak with IRS employees who can help you with a payment issue.

If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes, call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.

If you’ve been targeted by this scam, contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.
Assistant” at FTC.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.