'Harassing Calls' From IRS Are Scams: East Lyme Police

East Lyme Police Department released the following scam alert on Thursday, April 28.

Please be aware that numerous residents in our community as well as residents in surrounding towns of Eastern Connecticut have been receiving harassing phone calls by individuals claiming to be the Internal Revenue Service and demanding money.

Please do not be alarmed by these calls as they are fraudulent in nature and are part of typical scams that we experience around tax return time.

The IRS will not call you demanding money or request your information so please use caution and do not respond to these harassing and fraudulent calls. The criminals that make these calls sound legitimate and professional and then use intimidation to frighten individuals into providing their personal information or making false payments to the IRS.

These criminals also tend to attack the senior population of our communities as they typically have the most concern regarding their respective financial situations and often become victim to these scams.

It is extremely difficult to track this criminal element so the best practice is to avoid providing any of your personal information over the phone and at no time send any money or provide financial information to individuals claiming to be from the IRS or claiming that your accounts and /or finances are in jeopardy.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the East Lyme Police Department/East Lyme Resident Troopers Office if you have any concerns regarding these scams. Thank you for your attention to this matter. (860)-739-5900.

• Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts