TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - A message left on a Tallahassee woman's home phone turned out to be a scammer claiming to be from the IRS, who insisted she and her husband would be put in jail, if they did not comply with the caller's requests.
When Katherine Profeta called back the number, the person, still claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service, said she needed to pay them, and her husband needed to call back instead.
Fortunately, Profeta got a weird feeling about the conversation and made several calls, including one to the congressman's office.
The office assured her the call was fake. They also advised her to always ask for a name and badge number from someone claiming to be a government official.
That's what she did when she called the scammer back: "Yeah, I said I'm calling back for your name and your badge number and he said "what do you need my badge number for?" And I said, " to give it to the IRS." And he immediately hung up on me."
Since that call, Profeta has reported it to the IRS website and has notified her homeowners association about this possible scam, which could trap her elderly neighbors.
