Freetown Police warn of IRS scam

The Freetown Police Department had a humorous way to bring to light various scams going around and how you can protect yourself.

Detective Kelley turned himself in and subsequently booked himself for an outstanding IRS warrant.

Background: Detective Kelley, received a phone call on his department issued cell phone this morning from an agent of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The agent, with a foreign accent, stated that he owed a bunch of money to the IRS! The agent wanted Detective Kelley to go to Walmart and buy $2000 worth of Walmart gift cards. Then while the agent stayed on the line, to read him the numbers on the back of the gift cards. If Detective Kelley did not do this, an arrest warrant would be issued and he would be immediately arrested by the local police department (or us).

Since Detective Kelley was busy working and unable to go out-of-town to buy the gift cards, he told the agent to issue the warrant and hung up. (It was the right thing to do).

Next, he walked down the hall from his office to the booking room and turned himself in.

At this time we are still awaiting the IRS agent with the foreign accent to call us back to see what we should do with him.

Obviously this is our attempt at humor, but this sort of scam and many other scams happen every day. They mostly target our elderly residents. Please spread the word to this community, who may not have social media, and alert them to these scams! The IRS will NEVER call you and demand you to buy gift cards of any type.