Scammers claiming to be with IRS, demanding cash

BORDENTOWN, N.J. (WPVI) -- Tax season is upon us. It's also primetime for scammers to swindle unsuspecting residents out of their hard earned cash.

"The guy was very forceful and threatening to lock you up," said Al Stonier.

Stonier is a retired salesman who lives in Bordentown City. He got an alarming message Thursday morning from someone claiming to be with the criminal department of the IRS.

The caller left a message saying, "There are serious allegations against your name by the Internal Revenue Service."

Stonier returned the call and was told by a heavily accented man he'd be arrested immediately if he didn't pay money he allegedly owed.

Stonier explains, "He started with all these threats that he was gonna have me locked up because I was tax delinquent and also guilty of tax fraud."

Al Stonier is sharing his story because he doesn't want people to fall for this. He realized it was a scam, but thousands of others have not.

"First it was a little scary. Everybody's scared of the IRS. That's probably why this scam works so good," he said.

Federal officials say phony IRS agents have targeted more than 366,000 people with harassing phone calls demanding money and threatening jail in what the agency says is the biggest scam in its history.

Since 2013 3,000 people have fallen for it and were conned out of $15.5 million.

Neelma Patel owns the Cakebox in Bordentown City and has gotten multiple calls from these IRS scam artists.

Patel says, "I think I said something really silly to mock them, and then I hung up on them. And they called me back five times."

Patel wants the scammers caught.

Two arrests have been made in Florida of suspects connected to call centers in India, but the scam continues.

Luckily Al Stonier didn't fall for this con job.

The IRS says it never demands payment by debit card or wire transfer and if an IRS agent is trying to contact you it will be done first by mail, not a phone call.