You receive a call from what your phone shows is the IRS. The caller has your name, a case reference number, and tells you that you owe back taxes and must pay today to avoid arrest. They offer to stay on the line while you sort it out. What is the most reliable way to tell whether this contact is genuine?

Caller ID can be spoofed to show any number, including real government phone numbers. A case reference number, a badge number, and even the caller's name can all be fabricated or taken from public records. None of these make a call genuine. The one reliable tell is the payment instruction. No government agency, including the IRS, will ever demand payment by crypto ATM, gift card, or same-day wire transfer. If that is how they want to be paid, the call is a scam, regardless of how convincing everything else sounds. The right move is to hang up and call the IRS directly using a number you find yourself at irs.gov. You can also block the number on your phone, though scammers change numbers constantly, so blocking helps less than hanging up and checking every time.