phone number for attorney

[jim norland)] "of all the calls you can get that are intimidating, i would put the irs right up there with 'your child has been incarcerated.'" iowa businessman jim norland answered the intimidating phone call from a man who identified himself as an irs agent. the caller claimed that the irs had found mistakes in several of his previous income tax filings. he said jim had underpaid his taxes, had not responded to previous irs notices, and time had run out. [jim norland)] "he said to me, 'you owe us $5,800 dollars or whatever, and if you can make payment electronically by the end of the day of $4,300 dollars, we'll suspend your thing, suspend sending the federal marshal after you. and i said, well, i'd much rather pay $4,300 than get arrested. and they said okay, here's the process... that process involved jim immediately withdrawing thousands in cash from his bank account, and adding the funds to

a pre-paid money card available on store shelves--in this case, a card called reloadit. when the man called back jim provided the card number to pay off his supposed irs debt. jim later found out it was not the irs calling to collect--it was a scam. iowa attorney general tom miller. [attorney general tom miller] "it's a total fraud. the irs doesn't operate that way. the irs will send you a notice, that, if you owe money, they will not threaten jail; they will not give you a payment plan or payment place to make the payment. it's totally bogus. but it's using the irs name, it's urgency, it's jail, it's pressure, it's trying to get you to react quickly."

[geoff greenwood] if you owe back taxes, the irs will mail you, it won't call you. if you get such a call, even if it says "irs" on your caller id, hangup. if you want to make sure you really don't owe back taxes, pick up the phone and call the irs at its listed toll-free number. if you've been taken in by the irs scam, report it to your local police department or sheriff's office. with this consumer clip from the iowaattorney general's office, i'm geoff greenwood.