PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue are warning business owners about a new scam targeting them — through traditional snail mail.
Spokesperson Jeffrey Johnson said to beware of letters that look as though they are being sent from the revenue department.
"Fraudsters have taken our department’s name and logo and they've put it on a letter that is being sent out to Pennsylvania business owners," he said.
The letter may ask you to turn over your accounting records. "And as you might imagine, that could include a trove of personal information that could be very sensitive," he said, "all kinds of things that these fraudsters could use to do all kinds of things that would be very harmful to your business, [such as] requesting fraudulent tax refunds, applying for loans, making unauthorized transactions."
Read an example of the scam letters below.
Johnson explained there are subtle differences between a legitimate notice and a phony one. "One example would be that there is no return address on the scam notice," he detailed, adding the scam notices are generic. Instead of citing a specific business name, they might say something like "Dear Business Owner."
Another red flag about these mailings, he said, is that they ask business owners to act urgently. Johnson pointed out that is uncharacteristic of how his department works.
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"There's typically, you know, a time period of many days, weeks, even to get back to us. These scams really put you or attempt to put you in a pressure packed situation where you feel like you need to take action immediately," he said. "Sometimes the best thing to do is to take a breath and consider the facts."
If you receive a scam notice, Johnson said taxpayers with questions can always reach out through a secure link on their website.
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