DEARBORN — During the current tax season, the Dearborn Police Department has seen a drastic increase in fraudulent IRS-related incidents and would like to caution residents who may be purchasing a Green Dot or other prepaid debit card under threat of prosecution for tax issues.

Multiple incidents have been reported in which victims received phone calls from individuals claiming to be local law enforcement officers or agents of the IRS.  In each case, the caller claimed that the victim was delinquent in his tax payment and instructed the victim to purchase pre-paid debit cards in order to repay the taxes, threatening that the victim would be arrested if he failed to comply.  During each of the incidents, the callers have been concealing their phone numbers in order to give the appearance that the phone calls are originating from law enforcement or the IRS.

It is important to know that neither the IRS nor any law enforcement agency will ever request payment of any kind via telephone.  If you receive any suspicious calls instructing you to provide money or personal information over the telephone, you are encouraged to obtain a callback number and contact your local police department in order to verify the legitimacy of the caller.  If you believe that you have been the victim of a similar scam, you are encouraged to contact your local law enforcement agency or the IRS to report the incident.