7 On Your Side viewer dodges IRS scam

Police are telling ABC7 News that a South San Francisco man has been conned by a telephone thief using the IRS scam. He was taken for thousands of dollars.

7 On Your Side has been reporting on this scam for months and joins us now with an update. This first popped up on our radar early in the year and has really taken off, raking in millions of dollars. And as time goes on the bad guys are getting very good at their job.

When we first told you about this scam we heard messages from conmen who had heavy accents and poor phone connections. One phone call we heard said, "After you listen to this message, I need you or the attorney of record to return the call."

But as time has gone on, the conmen have become slicker and their phone connections better. A recent call we heard said, "This is Adam Peterson from the department of legal affairs... If I don't hear from you, then this will be taken that you are trying to avoid this and run away. The choice is yours."

Hilary Newman of Oakland received this call just last Friday -- two in fact.

"My initial thought was somebody... it sort of had me upset to start with. My initial thought was someone had stolen my identity. I know we don't owe taxes, I know we don't own anyone any money. So I thought there is some trouble and I am going to have to deal with something here," Newman said.

She went on line to check out the call.

"I put in the phone number because sometimes you can do that and it came up with a BBB message with the same guy's name. And then I actually found the 7 On Your Side report from last April, and that's where I watched that and thought it looks like they're doing this again or they're back at it," Newman said.

She contacted me and now you have been warned again.

"Make sure you look something up before you call somebody back on something like that and I appreciate you guys advertising it so people know this is the case," Newman said.

Here is the key to this scam: prepaid debit cards. The thieves always ask for that form of payment and the IRS never does.