The U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are still warning the public about phone scams where callers falsely say they are calling from the Treasury Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations or the Treasury Office of Legal Affairs. There are related email scams where correspondence looks like it may be from the Office of the Secretary of The Treasury.
The ruse is that citizens are awarded a government grant, and the caller requests personal information to release the funds. But the U.S. Treasury does not have such programs, nor does IRS call to demand payments, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
We urge recipients of such calls or emails to be extremely wary of any scheme requiring an advance payment for a later promise of funds — these are hallmarks of scams.”
There are also several taxpayer scams IRS is tracking.
U.S. Securities Fraud Scams
Fraud perpetrators now use fake promissory notes and private bonds in scams to defraud investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are several fraud schemes directed towards banks, charities, individuals and companies that involve what are claimed to be securities issued or backed by the Treasury Department, or another agent of the federal government.
Fake U.S. Treasury “Bank” Checks Scams
Another scheme is a variation of a common fraud generally known as “redemption” or “acceptance for value” that incorrectly asserts the United States government has trust accounts linked to each citizen. In a newer variation, individuals obtain routing numbers from Treasury bureaus, specifically the Financial Management Service (FMS) and the Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) or a Federal Reserve bank.
By using the federal routing numbers, and social security numbers as checking account numbers, individuals create fake checking accounts. The banks listed are either the FMS or BPD. The Treasury bureaus and the Treasury Direct Program do not offer the public checking accounts, and they will not honor any of these checks. They should never be accepted as payment. Here’s a sample fraudulent BPD “bank” check:
Learn more about grant scams and access fraud resources on Treasury.gov.