Hello,

My girlfriend received a call claiming to be from the NY State Tax Department. They told her that she owed $7,000, and asked if she could pay it over the phone. When she declined to pay for it over the phone, they gave her a number to all and told her that she should use her SS# as identification when she calls back to make payment.

To start with, she doesn't make enough to owe $7,000.

This sounds 100% like a scam to me. She knows that she should never pay anything over the phone unless she initiates the call to a known utility provider, and that she should never give anyone her social security number.

My question is, has anyone else heard of someone else receiving a call of this type? The phone number they gave was (888)211-4776. When I called it back I received a recording telling me it was the NY State Tax Collections Dept, and it instructed me to enter a SS# so the computer could look up the account. Although I think it's a scam, when I received calls of this nature before I could always find similar stories on the web when I searched for the phone number. I've put the number into Google, Hotbot and Yahoo, but it doesn't come up in any of them.

Does anyone know of this phone number?

Thanks!

Anyone, absolutely anyone, who asks for your SS no. and to pay over the phone is not up too much good. I would ignore this, but report it. You need to report it to the authorities so that even seniors aren't scammed, or anyone else, for that matter.

That is not how NY issues delinquency notices . She would've been mailed her notice if it was real .

This link provides the correct Phone number to call. I suggest calling them to inform them of this scam.

Telephone Numbers - Assessments (http://www.tax.state.ny.us/nyshome/tele_assessment.htm)