--- description: Thousands of people have lost money to scammers threatening to arrest them title: IRS Watchdog Says Phone Scam Is the Largest Ever image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # IRS Phone Scam Is The Largest Ever  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Mar 20, 2014 9:26 PM CUT  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Mar 20, 2014 9:26 PM CUT A government watchdog says that [fake IRS agents have targeted more than 20,000 people](http://www.heraldstandard.com/politics%5Fap/irs-watchdog-says-phone-scam-is-largest-ever/article%5Feed0a662-1428-5927-905d-3edf73f46ff8.html "undefined") in the largest phone scam in the history of the U.S. Thousands of victims have lost over $1 million to fake IRS agents claiming that people owe more taxes, according to the IRS inspector general. The scammers call up taxpayers demanding that they make payments through prepaid credit cards or wire transfer, threatening arrest, deportation, and loss of business or driver’s licenses if those they scam do not comply. IRS inspector general J. Russell George says people have been targeted in almost every state, according to the Associated Press. \[[_AP_](http://www.heraldstandard.com/politics%5Fap/irs-watchdog-says-phone-scam-is-largest-ever/article%5Feed0a662-1428-5927-905d-3edf73f46ff8.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/32651/irs-phone-scam-is-the-largest-ever/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/32651/irs-phone-scam-is-the-largest-ever/"},"headline":"IRS Phone Scam Is The Largest Ever","datePublished":"2014-03-20T21:26:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:53:10.767Z","description":"Thousands of people have lost more than $1 million to scammers who threatened them with arrest, deportation and the loss of business or driver's licenses if they did not make payments through credit cards or wire transfers","url":"https://time.com/32651/irs-phone-scam-is-the-largest-ever/","keywords":["Crime","Taxes","IRS"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/32651/irs-phone-scam-is-the-largest-ever/","name":"IRS Phone Scam Is The Largest Ever"}}]}] ```