MASON CITY – Police in Mason City said Thursday that a slick phone scammer has successfully annoyed a number of residents, and urged them to outwit the con artist by simply hanging up.
The Mason City police department said Thursday that its local dispatch center has been receiving “numerous calls” from “upset residents” concerning phone calls they have been taking within the past two days from an unknown caller who says the IRS will be issuing an arrest warrant for the recipient for tax evasion. The male caller suggests that the recipient can pay the alleged debt now to stop the arrest process.
Police said they have no clue who the scam artist is, where he is calling from and that he appears to be targeting random people. The only clue they have is the man is said to have a “foreign-sounding accent.”
Police said this type of call is not part of the IRS collation process.
Police remind residents not provide any sensitive or personal information to unsolicited/unknown people. Mail, phone and internet-related scams/malware are a frequent recurring problem in the U.S. All citizens need to take reasonable precautions to safeguard their data and personal information.
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We get text and calls quite often. We just delete them. Any call we get that we do not know, we just ignore and do not answer.