Around Town: Avoid scams, an American pastime

We were trying to relax after a long day at work.

Suddenly, the phone rang, an unusual event. Most of our friends text, Facebook message, tweet or communicate by carrier pigeon.

I checked the Caller ID. It was the third phone call from “the IRS.” The Caller ID displayed an actual IRS phone number.

Sighing, I picked up the phone.

“This is Agent Monroe from the IRS,” said the caller.

“Oh?” I asked.

“You owe $1,247 on your 2014 income tax. The IRS demands immediate payment. If you don’t pay today, we will begin a criminal prosecution.”

“Yeah, right,” I said, and hung up the phone.

Shocking, right?

The call was a scam.

The IRS estimates that since 2013, Americans have paid more than $20 million to phone scammers who impersonate the IRS. That’s why the IRS has issued a Summer 2015 alert, warning that: “The real IRS will not ... call you to demand immediate payment. The IRS will not call you if you owe taxes without first sending you a bill in the mail.”

Also, the real IRS will not “threaten to bring in police or other agencies to arrest you for not paying.”

Later that night, we received three calls from “Dell Computers,” alerting us to a dangerous virus affecting our laptop. Just log onto the “the Dell” website at a special link, to give the nice customer service caller remote access in order to “fix” the virus.

Sounds wonderful, but for that fact that Dell doesn’t telephone customers to warn about viruses.

Yet another scam is the “Grandparent Scam.” The crooks peruse social media — Twitter, Instagram and Facebook — to learn the background of family members. The grandparent gets a phone call or an email from a foreign lawyer who says that their grandchild has been arrested abroad and needs money wired quickly to pay their bail. Three years ago, the FBI issued an alert about the Grandparent Scam.

Scams have a long history in American culture. LeRoy Ashby, in “With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830,” describes Fred Allen, a vaudeville star who joked about one thief: “He’s a good boy. Everything he steals, he brings right home to his mother.”

Crimes of violence are nothing new. Jack Benny made up a story about the time he was held up at gunpoint. “Your money or your life!” said the robber. Benny, who was known for being a penny pincher, just stood there, in silence.

“Well?” the crook finally demanded.

Benny replied, “I’m thinking it over.”

As for these new generation phone scammers, they can be convincing. One LCF mom, Cydney Cotter Motia, wants to alert the seniors in our town.

Motia is a member of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station Citizen Advisory Committee. The group is hosting a free program on “Telephone Scams, Fraud and Solicitation,” on Thursday, Oct. 1, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Lanterman Auditorium, 4491 Cornishon Ave., across from the LCUSD offices and a stone’s throw from See’s Candies.

Take your family. There’s lots of room, but be sure to RSVP to Sgt. Cynthia Gonzales at (818) 236-4019.

And don’t believe the scammers.

ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. Follow her on Instagram @realanitabrenner, Facebook and on Twitter @anitabrenner.