2 people in Des Plaines scammed by IRS, ComEd posers

Two people in Des Plaines were scammed out of a total of more than $3,000 by con artists posing in one case as a ComEd official and the other as IRS employees.

In one case, a manager at Tiffany's Restaurant, 2179 E. Touhy Ave., was called around 1 p.m. Dec. 29 and told the restaurant was behind on its ComEd utility bill and the electricity would be cut off within the hour. The man told her paying by credit card would not keep the electricity on; only payment of $1,898 by Reloadit Pak cards would work. She purchased the cards and provided the caller with the PIN numbers. ComEd recently warned that this con has been reported in a number of instances recently in the Chicago area.

In the other case, a man at UOP, 25 E. Algonquin Road, received a call around 9:48 a.m. Jan. 4 from a woman claiming to be with the government who asked the victim a series of identifying questions and told him the IRS would be calling him in minutes. A man then called and told him he owed more than $3,000 in past due taxes. He was instructed to pay immediately or face arrest.

The man told the victim not to tell anyone about the call and to not hang up the phone. The victim stayed on the phone with the man from 9:52 to 11:59 a.m. while he drove to a pharmacy and purchased a MoneyGram wire transfer to a woman in Antioch, Tennessee, for $1,611, the amount of money in his bank account.

The IRS says it will never call to demand immediate payment or call without first having mailed a bill; demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to appeal; require you to use a specific payment method; ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone; or threaten to have local police arrest for not paying.