The La Crosse Police Department would like to warn area residents that phone scammers are continuing to make fake Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collections calls. The fake IRS collection agents, using both “live” and “robo-calls”, are demanding that the victim make an immediate payment on an overdue tax bill. They demand personal details or banking information, and then they threaten the victim with arrest or jail time if they don’t comply. Unfortunately, these scammers seem to know quite a bit about the victim and trick them into thinking that they are receiving a legitimate call.
However, this is a SCAM!
Both the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) and IRS would like to remind consumers that the IRS will never call out of the blue, especially regarding overdue tax bills. Any official request for payment by the IRS is first mailed to the consumer through an official bill.
Never give out your personal details, banking information, passwords, or access to your computer to any unknown person, agency, or company. Always hang up, find a publicly listed phone number in the phone book or online, and call the person, agency, or company back to verify the request.
For more detailed information and ways to protect yourself against this scam, visit the IRS Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts webpage.
La Crosse PD Newsroom 
I posted a comment before which didnt show up.Got 3 calls yesterday from these IRS scammers.I have resorted to turning off my answering machine.I will just use caller ID,too unnerveing getting these repeat calls.
Received 3 calls via voice mail yesterday.I did call the police . Reported it to the state of Wisconsin.Tryed the IRS number to report,but so many voicemails their machine was full and could not leave a message.A person can check these numbers by typing the number and checking it online.Seems the whole country is being hit by this scam.I have turned my answering machine off as even though I know its a scam its too unnerveing to get these repeat calls.We have caller ID and I will not answer a number I dont know.I feel so sorry for people that get scared and fall for this scam.
Why can’t these scams be stopped?? I got a call at 7:30 AM. they left call back number which may be false, but should be able to trace where it does go.
We appreciate your frustration! Unfortunately, these scammers often use fake numbers when calling. A popular method involves “Caller-ID Spoofing” wherein your Caller ID displays a fake number, not the real number from which the scammer is calling. This makes it nearly impossible to trace the calls back to the real culprit. The best method to prevent these scams from perpetuating is knowledge and awareness. Thank you for contacting us.