Five arrested for impersonating the IRS, listen to a recorded scam in progress

Five people have been arrested in Miami who are said to be responsible for scamming 1,500 people out of more than $2 million by impersonating IRS agents. Their scams centered on contacting individual taxpayers out of the blue and demanding payments under the threat of jail time.

News of the arrests circulated Tuesday after the Associated Press reported on them. Sources in the Treasury Department said that the five individuals – all Cuban nationals – demanded money from their victims, threatening arrest if the payments were not wired immediately.

In recent months, the scammers demanded payment via iTunes gift cards.

Scams such as this, Deputy Inspector General Tim Camus told the Washington Post, have become the “largest and most pervasive” the IRS has faced over the last three decades. Some 6,400 victims have reported more than $36 million in losses, some paying up to $5,700 on average.

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