By Cynthia Grau

PONTIAC – Even though scam phone calls aren’t new, they keep coming and changing, finding new ways to take people’s money.

One that makes the rounds this time of year is someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service, saying a person didn’t pay their taxes and if money isn’t sent immediately, an arrest warrant will be issued.

Pontiac Police Chief Jim Woolford says, no, even if you didn’t pay your taxes, that isn’t a credible short term scenario.

“Say, for example, you didn’t pay your taxes this year, odds are within 15 to 30 days of tax day, they don’t have a warrant, they’re not coming for you,” Woolford said. “If anything else, what they’ll do is they’re get a hold of you, probably by mail, and provide you numbers to call them. Even if you get letters in the mail, I would look it up and verify that the number they provided is actually on the official government website. If it’s not, just call the one from the government website. I don’t know of anybody who had a warrant issued for them. I’ve heard of people getting their wages garnished for not paying taxes, and sure, there can be real repercussions, but it’s not an immediate thing.”

For more information, visit IRS.gov.

Cynthia Grau can be reached at [email protected].