Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart is warning of a phone scam in which a caller claims to be a member of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
In this scam, the unknown offenders use a spoofing application to make it appear on Caller ID that the phone call is coming from a Sheriff’s Office number. The caller identifies as a Cook County Sheriff’s officer and tells the victim that they are being investigated for fraud by the IRS. The caller tells the
victim to call an IRS agent at a particular number.
This is a scam. The Sheriff’s Office is not working with the IRS on any cases.
Sheriff Dart offers the following tips to avoid becoming a phone scam victim:
• If you believe the call is suspicious, hang up.
• Do not give any personal information, such as social security or bank account numbers, over the phone.
• If the caller claims to be from a specific agency, hang up and call that agency to determine if there is a legitimate reason to contact you. Do not use the phone number the caller gives you.
• If you receive a phone call about owing taxes, hang up and call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 if you believe you may owe taxes.
• Report any bogus IRS phone calls to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.
Sheriff Dart asks anyone who may believe they are victim of this scam, or may have information about the perpetrators, to call Sheriff’s Police at 708-865-4896.
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