A Bowling Green man wants to warn others about a scam from a caller who says she represents the Internal Revenue Service. Also, two utility companies serving this area are warning customers about a separate phone scam involving their agencies.

Monday afternoon, Marshal Ray received a voicemail from a woman who said she works for the IRS. She told Ray he needed to call back a 1-877 number to clear up a tax issue. Ray’s caller ID showed a different number. When he called that number, it was out of service.

“Because I’m aware of fraud, I am more hesitant and scrutinizing,” Ray said. “This is not the first time I’ve gotten a phone call like this.”

Ray checked into both numbers online and saw a variety of comments from people who said they had received similar calls from the 1-877 number and identified it as a scam.

“Even if it is a legitimate number, that doesn’t mean that the call was not a scam,” IRS media relations specialist Mike Dobzinski said.

Scammers are able to make it look as though they are calling from the IRS.

Dobzinski attempted to call the 1-877 number while on the phone with a reporter, but a person never answered. The recorded voice also advised Dobzinski to hang on while they served other “customers.”

“We wouldn’t use that language,” Dobzinski said. “We generally refer to callers as ‘taxpayers.’ “

IRS officials found out about a scam in October 2013. They sent out an alert warning taxpayers. The IRS will never call and demand a wire transfer or debit card number over the phone, Dobzinski said.

The difference between Ray’s call and previous scammers is that in prior scams, callers make a variety of threatening statements. For example, callers have threatened to have immigrants deported if they didn’t pay “taxes” immediately over the phone, Dobzinski said.

“Our general advice is if they think they owe money, they should call 1-800-829-1040,” Dobzinski said. At that number, a real IRS representative should be able to answer any questions.

“We do make calls for people who are delinquent,” he said. “We don’t ask for payments over the phone by wire transfer or debit card. Generally speaking, if someone owes the IRS money, they know about it.” 

Taxpayers who know they don’t owe taxes, or those contacted and threatened are asked to call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.

Anyone targeted by telephone IRS scams should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use the “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of the complaint.

The IRS ruse is not the only phone scam going around this week. Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation and Bowling Green Municipal Utilities released information Wednesday about scams involving their organizations.

Warren RECC and BGMU have received reports that some utility customers have been contacted by people representing themselves as employees of those utility organizations. In the case of Warren RECC, the caller tells customers he or she has an overdue bill, which can be paid for over the phone with a credit card. Warren RECC employees do not accept credit card information over the phone. 

Anyone who gets such a call should not give out personal or financial information and should report the call to local law enforcement agency or any Warren RECC office.

BGMU does not contact customers by phone regarding account payments. Bills, late notices and disconnection information are relayed to customers through the U.S. postal service. BGMU customer service employees who travel to customers’ homes wear a BGMU uniform, have a BGMU badge showing their employee number and drive a BGMU vehicle with the logo displayed. BGMU does not conduct non-emergency business after regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For questions regarding a BGMU account, call 270-782-1200.

— Follow news editor Deborah Highland on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnnewseditor or visit bgdailynews.com.