LEE COUNTY — The Lee County Sheriff’s Department has received several complaints regarding IRS Tax Scams in the Dixon and Lee County area.

The callers are identifying themselves as members of the IRS. They will notify the person called that there is a warrant or will be a warrant issued for their arrest if they do not resolve the issue. The callers will then instruct the person to call another number to make a payment to resolve their back taxes.

This is very similar to what the county experienced last year at this time.

If anyone receives a call similar to this do not give any personal information or contact the number given. If you have received a call similar to this, please contact the following website – www.ftc.gov., or call 202-326-2222. If you received scam information via email, please contact www.Ic3.gov. If you have a legitimate issue with the IRS they will not contact you by phone to resolve this issue.   

In addition, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office has also received some inquiries regarding scams involving social media and lottery winnings. The complainant states that they receive information from a friend on social media that has won money in a lottery.  The friend tells the complainant to send money to a particular account via I-Tunes or other mechanism that sounds legitimate. The friend describes the arrangement and continues to encourage the caller to send money as the friend has won money doing this.

In each case, the caller eventually confronted the friend who had no idea what the caller was talking about. Someone/group is using a friend’s name to illicit this fraud unknowingly, via social media.  

In these cases, Lee County Sheriff John Simonton said he would encourage anyone receiving these type of calls to be very cautious and call the sheriff’s department before sending any money.