Thursday, April 11, 2013
Resident Duped By Fake IRS Email
A Lawrenceburg woman filed a complaint last week after discovering she had been duped into providing a con artist, whom she believed to be with the IRS, with personal and banking information.
The victim reported the matter Tuesday to officers with the Lawrenceburg Police Department. She said that she had received an email that appeared to have been sent by the Internal Revenue Service.
She said that she followed a link that led her to believe that she and her husband were to receive a refund.
The victim told officers that she provided her husband’s personal information along with their bank account information.
She said that while waiting for a confirmation number she was contacted by a man who claimed to represent the IRS, and that she became suspicious when he provided her with two different identification numbers.
She told officers that while she was speaking with that man, she was contacted by Western Union.
The Western Union representative was seeking authorization to make a withdrawal from her bank account about which the victim had no knowledge. She told officers that she quickly contacted her bank and placed a hold on their account.
In addition, she said she contacted the IRS, Social Security Administration and all three credit reporting agencies to flag her husband’s information in the event of any attempted fraud.
At the time the report was filed no funds had been removed from the victim’s account and authorities had found evidence of no other fraudulent actions.
