Back when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, there was a widely shared post on various social media platforms that claimed the IRS had set up a hotline for people to check on the status of their checks. stimulus. It was released on April 1, 2020 – and it turned out to be a joke.
The hotline was to be 1-800-746-6373. And when we actually called that number, a woman’s voice answered that it was the oral stimulation number. After that, the voice asked for their credit card information. Stimulus payments were a big part of the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, with the federal government sending checks to those who needed them immediately.
The stimulus check scam was part of it from the start
The first round of the stimulus check packages issued a sum of $1,200 each to millions of citizens across the country, with several additional payments of approximately $500 per child. Stimulus check payments were then supposed to be phased out for those with annual incomes above $75,000 a year. Those earning more than $99,000 would not be considered eligible for payment. According to the official IRS website, individuals did not have to apply to receive payment online.
The IRS had said that a large portion of the population certainly did not need to take any form of action. In effect, it would be the IRS that would automatically calculate and pay economic impact payments to those deemed eligible. For people who had already pushed for their 2019 tax returns, the IRS would also use that information to begin calculating the payment amount. And for those who hadn’t filed their return for 2019, the IRS would use information from their 2018 tax return to calculate the payment amount.
