(Woodland, CA) – (August 18, 2020) – Now that tax season has come and gone, scammers are coming up with new ways to attempt to scam Yolo County residents. A new twist on the tax scam is the Tax Lien Letter which seeks to scare recipients by claiming their property will be seized due to unpaid taxes. The Yolo County District Attorney is warning the community to be alert for fraudulent emails from someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service.
The letter looks official and says it comes from the Tax Processing Unit at Yolo County’s Internal Processing Service. It states that your property will be seized if you do not pay the outstanding or unpaid taxes due for your property. The letter says that there is a lien on your property and that they will take possession of your property if you do not pay the taxes, penalties, and interest due to the State. And not only is there a lien, but they also state they will garnish your bank accounts and income. And then it says you can simply call the phone number provider to clear up these issues. The goal of these scammers is to use the scare tactics of words like liens, garnishment, seize, and take possession to deceive you into giving them money by lying about your property.
District Attorney Jeff Reisig says you cannot be too careful, “If you receive an unexpected letter like this, do not call the phone number. Please verify the status of your property taxes and the lien status of your property.” Reisig continued, “There really isn’t anything that can’t wait while you check it out.”
If you receive these suspicious letters like the Tax Lien Letter you can double check the status of your property taxes and any tax liens by calling the Yolo County Treasury & Revenues Division at 530-666-8625.
If you suspect fraud and receive suspicious mail like this please don’t hesitate to contact the Yolo County District Attorney’s Fraud Hotline at 1-855-4-YOLO-DA or your local law enforcement agency. Reports of suspected fraud can also be made online at https://www.yoloda.org or by email to fraud@yoloda.org.
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