ALBANY, N.Y. New York state officials are warning people about telephone and email scammers pretending to be tax collectors.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the scammers claim they are from the Internal Revenue Service or the state tax department and threaten people with fines, deportation or arrest if they fail to pay up.
Scam callers tell recipients to immediately pay with a wire transfer or a pre-loaded debit card. Sometimes the calls are accompanied by fake IRS emails. The scammers threaten recipients who don't comply.
Some of the bogus calls come from the 530 area code but others appear legitimate on the caller ID screen.
State officials say tax agencies always make first contact by letter with a phone number you can contact to verify the sender.