Scammers posing as Mo. revenue officials

Scam artists have been using tax season to try to get people's financial information, according to the attorney general's office.

The first incident was reported to authorities last week, said David Griffith, spokesman for the Department of Revenue. A woman received a phone call from someone identifying themselves as an official with of the Department of Revenue. The caller requested the routing number of her checking account so the department could process her income tax refund, Griffith said.

The only problem was, she hadn't filed her taxes yet.

Suspicious, she gathered as much information about the call as she could, then hung up and dialed the real Department of Revenue.

The criminal investigation office of the department began looking into the incident and discovered several other Missourians across the state received similar calls from people soliciting sensitive financial information, such as credit card numbers and checking account information, Griffith said.

Since Department of Revenue representatives will not call taxpayers out of the blue without first notifying them of a problem by letter, he said, any such calls should be automatically deemed suspicious.

Because rebates may be coming from the government as part of an economic stimulus plan, Attorney General Jay Nixon said, identity thieves are hoping to trick eager consumers into giving out their personal financial information.

"This is a simple attempt by crooks to take advantage of a story in the news and fool consumers into giving out valuable personal information," Nixon said.

There is a certain level of comfort in thinking they are dealing with a government agency that may cause consumers to let their guard down, Griffith said.

Personal information such as Social Security numbers or bank account numbers should only be provided if the taxpayer initiates the call directly to the Department of Revenue and is certain the correct person is on the other end of the line, Griffith said.

"These types of scam calls happen around this time of the year, and we want Missourians to be cautious before giving out any information over the phone in a call they did not initiate," said Omar Davis, director of the Department of Revenue.

The calls have been coming from outside of Missouri, and several were from Maine, Griffith said. Law enforcement agencies in the states where the calls have been traced have been notified of the problem, he said.

Griffith said people should ask for a suspicious caller's phone number and hang up immediately if the caller refuses to provide one.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245