Just because today (Tuesday) is Groundhog Day doesn’t mean we have to repeat the same thing over and over again, nor does it mean we need to be scared of our own shadow.

But it does mean we need to be vigilant of potential scam artists lurking in the shadows. Unlike traditional scams, this breed of criminal takes a bolder approach by directly contacting potential victims under the guise of being an IRS employee, with claims that an arrest will be made if payments aren’t sent immediately.

The first warning sign is that the IRS never calls anyone. If there are previously owed taxes, the IRS only sends out notification letters.

Unfortunately, fear of the IRS is what allows these crooks to run off with their victims’ hard-earned money. This problem is hitting unsuspecting people across the country, and the Big Horn Basin is no exception.

A local resident was tricked out of nearly $2,000 a couple of weeks ago by some callers claiming to be from the IRS, who threatened to arrest him if payments weren’t made immediately. We sympathize with this man, since he was only trying to make good on what he thought were debts he didn’t realize he owed.

Unfortunately, he is far from alone in being a victim of this type of scam.

At just the Powell branch of H&R Block alone, there were 12 identity theft cases out of 2,000 tax returns filed at that particular office, said Ann Ruward, Senior Tax Adviser 5 with H&R Block.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration received reports of about 736,000 scam contacts since October 2013, according to the IRS. Nearly 4,550 victims collectively paid over $23 million due to scams.

Identity theft cases as a whole cost the IRS $5.8 billion in 2013, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That same year, $24.2 billion was recovered in identity theft cases, so most were caught, but not all.

Now that tax season is in full swing, we encourage everyone to heed the advice offered by local experts — contact an accountant to verify whether any claims of debt are legitimate, even if it arrives in the mail and looks real.

Sometimes scams arrive in the mail and look like real letters from the IRS, or the claimed debt could be an error on the IRS’ side. Either way, nobody should hand out their money without a legitimate reason.

Nor should anyone give out their personal identification information, such as a Social Security number, because the real IRS already has that information on file.

We encourage anyone who believes they may have had their identity stolen, or are being preyed upon by a scam artist, to contact the Powell Police Department at 754-2212. They may not always be able to track down the criminal, but having it on file that the problem is occurring may prove useful in future attempts to get your money back.

There are all kinds of scams out there, but like many things, scams tend to come in waves of trends — gaining momentum until the public becomes aware of them.

This particular problem didn’t exist a few years ago, but local experts suspect more incidents will occur this year. We encourage everyone to stay vigilant and take appropriate action whenever there’s something suspicious in the shadows.

If you’d like more information, read the tax scam story online at www.powelltribune.com/news/item/14467-tax-scams-on-the-rise.