Tax Day Came and Went. The IRS Scam Calls in North Carolina Didn't.
April 20, 2026
On April 15, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson issued a consumer alert warning residents about Tax Day scams. The release focused on fake IRS websites that promise massive, unrealistic refunds and harvest Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and email addresses in the process. It's solid advice, and the timing is right.
The phone side of that same campaign is already running. North Carolina residents filed 2,114 complaints about government impersonation calls to the FTC in the last 90 days, spread across more than 1,000 unique phone numbers. The top-volume numbers are almost all toll-free.
The Numbers Actually Calling NC Right Now
These are the numbers driving the most North Carolina complaints in the government impersonation category this quarter. Every one still active, with reports logged as recently as this morning.
| Phone number | NC complaints | Total nationwide | Last reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| 800-869-3557 | 37 | 208 | 2026-04-17 |
| 855-768-8331 | 34 | 163 | 2026-04-12 |
| 855-909-0815 | 29 | 844 | 2026-04-17 |
| 888-382-1222 | 25 | 485 | 2026-04-17 |
| 800-294-9424 | 15 | 416 | 2026-04-12 |
| 866-450-5552 | 11 | 182 | 2026-04-12 |
| 855-357-2202 | 10 | 167 | 2026-04-17 |
| 855-909-0816 | 9 | 497 | 2026-04-16 |
| 866-959-1526 | 9 | 279 | 2026-04-12 |
Every one of these is toll-free, which matches what we see across the wider category. Government impersonation operations lean on VoIP carrier pools that spin up new toll-free numbers faster than any single number hits five reported victims. A number can run for weeks before it accumulates enough complaints to get flagged, and by the time it does, the scammers have already rotated to the next batch.
One example surfaced after we built the list above. 989-343-2000 wasn't in the original pull, but in the weeks since it has logged 34 NC complaints out of 49 total, a 69 percent state concentration that's unusual for the government impersonation category. The heaviest cluster is in Raleigh and Wayne County. It's a Michigan area code being used to dial North Carolina specifically, and the FCC has another 63 complaints on the same number, which puts actual victim contacts well above 100.
What the Calls Sound Like
The calls follow the same playbook AG Jackson flagged on the website side. A voice claiming to be from the IRS tells you there's a problem with your return, a delayed refund that needs verification, or a payment owed on back taxes. The caller asks for your Social Security number, your banking details, or your date of birth to confirm your identity. Sometimes they quote an amount they claim you owe and offer to settle it with gift cards, money orders, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers.
Jackson's release nails one of the reliable tells. The real IRS doesn't demand payment in gift cards. It doesn't accept cryptocurrency. It doesn't make first contact by phone. Anyone on the phone asking for any of those things is running a scam.
Why Tax Season Is the Spike
This pattern shows up every year. Tax season gives scammers a hook that works on three different kinds of targets. People expecting a refund will listen to anything about that refund. People anxious about filing mistakes will listen to anything about their return. People who think they might owe back taxes will listen to anything that sounds like a government collector.
The campaigns ramp up in late January when W-2s go out, peak in April around the filing deadline, and continue through amended-return season in the fall. The phone numbers rotate aggressively but the scripts stay close to identical year over year. Most victims who report to the FTC describe the same short list of opening lines.
If You Already Picked Up
AG Jackson's release points to IdentityTheft.gov for the IRS Form 14039 Identity Theft Affidavit if someone files a fraudulent return in your name. His office also runs a consumer complaint process at ncdoj.gov/complaint and a dedicated hotline at 1-877-5-NOSCAM.
If you got a call from one of the numbers above and want to see the full complaint history, every reported number has its own page here. Look up a number at isitspamchecker.com and you'll see reported scam types, regional distribution, and risk scoring.