Salinas Seniors Targeted By Financial Elder Abuse Scam

I wrote recently about a scam which was targeting seniors across the country.  Now police are warning local residents about the scam which has been hitting the Monterey Peninsula hard.  The Monterey County Sheriff's Office is warning about spoofing scams where con artists call and falsely have their caller ID show up on your phone as coming from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or some other government agency.  They then demand money, and have even threatened to have people's drivers licenses revoked (which even the IRS cannot do).  Over the past two years con artists have reaped $14 million from this scheme.  The IRS commissioner has come out and said the agency never makes their first contact by phone.  Mary Lesher, a Salinas resident, said she's received three or four phone calls last year and one this year.  If you receive such a call, hang up and report the caller to 1-800-366-4484 or go online to www.tigta.gov.