Public Safety
Darien Woman Loses $2,400 to Phone Scammer Who Said She Owed IRS
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A man saying he was from the Internal Revenue Service called a 54-year-0ld Darien woman to demand thousands of dollars of what he said was her unpaid tax bill, and the scam worked — she lost $2,400. Darien police said the scam happened this way:
On July 5, the woman received a voicemail message from someone purporting to be “Peter Morris” from the IRS, asking her to call him back at (202) 657-4773. Police said that according to an Internet search, the name “Peter Morris” had been used in previous phone scams. The man had an accident from the Indian subcontinent, the woman later told police. She called back the number and “Peter Morris” told her she owed $2,359 in taxes, and she would either be arested or subject to a federal lawsuit if she didn’t pay it immediately. He stayed on the phone with her and told her not to hang up but to go to her bank, withdraw the money, then go to a Walmart store to send a Moneygram.