美国国家公共电台 NPR As Tax Day Approaches, Watch Out For Phone Scammers

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

All right. The IRS estimates that taxpayers¹ have lost more than $65 million because of phone scams related to taxes. And, as you might expect, these scams are most common during tax season. Reporter Paige Pfleger got a firsthand look at the scams when her phone rang.

PAIGE PFLEGER, BYLINE²: The voice on the other end of the line said he was calling from the Pennsylvania State Police. He rattled³ off some information about me - my full name, my email address, where I went to college, when I graduated and told me the IRS had a warrant out for my arrest for not paying taxes on my college scholarship. I told him the whole thing sounded fishy⁴, and this was his response.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Can you see my phone number, ma'am, appearing on your cellphone right now?

PFLEGER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Go and just type in the whole number online and see which office and which department you're speaking to.

PFLEGER: I mean, I'm seeing that that's the Pennsylvania State Police number.

He then told me I could make the whole thing go away by buying Apple gift cards. That's when I realized it was a scam. But not everyone is so lucky.

MICHELLE ABILTZ: If I wanted to get a loan I can't because my credit right now is not that great.

PFLEGER: That's Michelle Abiltz (ph) of Barto, Pa. She got a credit card cash advance for more than $10,000 last year when she fell victim to a tax scam, and she hasn't been able to pay all of that money back. She got the call while she was at work.

ABILTZ: And it said this was the IRS, I owed money, and if I did not call back this number, the local authorities would be after me.

PFLEGER: Abiltz is one of more than 13,000 people in the U.S. who has fallen for a tax scam in the last five years, according to the Treasury⁵ Inspector⁶ General for Tax Administration. California has the highest number of victims and total dollars lost, and New York and Texas are close behind.

ED WIRTH: A lot of people are afraid of the IRS. And so when you hear those words when someone calls, I think it intimidates⁷ a lot of folks on the receiving end of the phone call.

PFLEGER: That's Ed Wirth, a special agent with the criminal investigation⁸ division at the IRS. He says that phone scams can be spotted⁹ because they come out of nowhere, and the request will seem really urgent, like with my scammer.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So do you want to resolve the matter? This would be right now, right away.

PFLEGER: Often, they'll threaten legal action like arrest or deportation¹⁰. And they say to make the problem go away, they need personal information or money. My scammer was trying to convince me that a gift card from the Apple store or a grocery store chain was considered a government bond.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: If you want to resolve the matter, ma'am, you have to go to the government-certified store, the government-certified location. And you have to purchase federal bond for the amount of $7,980.

PFLEGER: Con¹¹ artists can make any number appear on your caller ID, which is how they made it look like they were calling me from the state police number and how they can even make it look like they're calling from the real IRS number. That can make these scams confusing. But Ed Wirth from the IRS says people just need to remember one simple rule.

WIRTH: If you have not received communication from us via the U.S. mail, we're not going to be calling you.

PFLEGER: He urges people not to let fear of the tax man make you the next victim of a tax scam. For NPR News, I'm Paige Pfleger.

1 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

4 fishy   

adj. 值得怀疑的

参考例句：

• It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
• There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。

5 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

6 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

7 intimidates   

n.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的名词复数 )v.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He intimidates the children by shouting at them. 他朝孩子们大声叫喊以吓唬他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Militant Islam condemns and intimidates and kills Muslims before anyone else. 穆斯林武装分子非难、恐吓和杀害穆斯林自己人在先。 来自互联网

8 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

9 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

10 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

11 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。