The Missouri Department of Revenue recently announced that some Missouri taxpayers are reporting what appears to be a telephone scam.
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The “callers” are falsely identifying themselves as being with the “Revenue Department” so they can obtain sensitive financial information from taxpayers.
The callers are asking for customers’ “routing number,” and claim they are processing the previous years refund owed to the customer.
The Missouri Department of Revenue would never call individual taxpayers requesting personal bank account routing numbers or credit card numbers to process an income tax refund. This information should only be provided if a Missourian initiates the contact with the Department.
“Missourians need to be cautious if asked to give out their personal financial information over the phone by someone claiming to be from the Department of Revenue,” Gov. Blunt said.
“I have urged the Department to continue doing all it can to inform Missourians about this scam to protect taxpayers from fraud and identity theft.”
The Department has contacted law enforcement in the states where these calls originated to seek their assistance.
If customers receive these types of calls, they should NOT divulge any personal information to the caller.
Inquiries from consumers should be directed to [email protected] or (800) 392-8222. An additional web site is http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/01/tax_rebate_scam.html.