There are plenty of scams out there. If you encounter one, here's how you can notify the proper authorities.
THE IRS SCAM
One scam that never seems to go away involves robo-callers or actual people phoning households and pretending to be associated with the IRS. Best advice: Hang up or do not answer. More advice: Never buy iTunes cards to pay your taxes. That's a scam.
If you experience any of the above, you can report it to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. See www.treasury.gov/tigta. Or you can call TIGTA at 800-366-4484. Due to the high volume of complaints received by the office, its voicemail box might be full. So, if you didn't actually lose money, you might be better off just filing a complaint online.
Scammers also use email for IRS-related fraud. Remember: The IRS will never request personal or financial information by email, text, or social media. You can forward scam emails to phishingirs.gov. Do not open any attachments or click on any links in those emails.
The IRS website has some good information on how to report phishing and online scams. See www.irs.gov for alerts, as well.
Consumers also can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.FTC.gov.
THE SWEEPSTAKES SCAM
If you spot a sweepstakes scam, a good route to go is contacting the Federal Trade Commission. You can also file complaints about IRS impostors to the FTC. See www.FTC.gov.
The FTC takes complaints about identity theft issues, counterfeit checks received during the sale of goods, romance scams, unwanted texts or telemarketing, online shopping, and scams involving prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries.
Consumers also can file an online complaint with Publishers Clearing House if someone fraudulently claims to be from Publishers Clearing House.
ID THEFT
If someone actually steals your Social Security number or other important ID information, you want to take several steps.
See IdentityTheft.gov for a list of what to do in the case of ID theft. You may need to call your bank or other financial company where you know the fraud took place to close or freeze accounts. You may need to change log-ins or passwords.
You may want to place a free, 90-day fraud alert by contacting one of the three credit bureaus. The one credit bureau you contact must alert the other two.
- Experian is 888-397-3742. See www.experian.com/fraudalert.
- TransUnion is 800-680-7289. See www.transunion.com/fraud.
- Equifax is 888-766-0008. Or see www.equifax.com/CreditReportAssistance.
Other steps may be necessary as well, including filing a police report to establish that your credit card or other ID information was stolen.