Coupeville Marshal Chris Garden is warning residents about an IRS scam he’s seeing pop up in the area.

“Over the last several days we have heard from quite a few people about the phone calls that they are receiving from the IRS (or someone claiming to be),” he said. “I had one left on my answering machine.”

The caller claims to be from the IRS and states that there is a warrant for the resident’s arrest, Garden said. The caller encourages the person to call back on a listed phone number to take care of the matter. The scammer tells the resident to avoid being arrested by sending in a certain amount of money.

“Interestingly, one of the options will not be sending a check directly to the IRS at their listed address,” Garden said. “You can always check the IRS website and they will tell you that they do not conduct business this way.”

Garden recommends not calling the number back or sending any money and suggests contacting local law enforcement or going to the Federal Trade Commission website and reporting someone is falsely claiming to be from the government.

“Call me if you feel the call is genuine and you are afraid you are going to be arrested,” Garden said. “If someone is trying to get you to do something with fear or greed as a motivator, it is most likely a scam.”

Garden can be reached at Coupeville Town Hall at 360-678–4461 ext. 31.