No pity for another tax scam victim

A peer accountant reports today that he had a client fall for a tax collection scheme and paid the scammers $5,700 in Apple Itunes gift cards. I have been posting consumer warnings about tax scams for decades and am normally empathetic to victims. But I have a hard time feeling much pity for any person who:

1. Pays a tax collection notice without speaking with their accountant (but then immediately goes to the accountant afterward for help to get the money back from the scam),
2. Assumes that the IRS accepts Itunes gift cards as payment, and
3. Hasn’t yet heard about the “we are sending police to your house right now to arrest you if you don’t pay immediately” scam that has been widely reported in the news.

In the event anyone reading this is not aware, please see these earlier blog posts:

Simple advice to avoid IRS scams

IRS scam education