Law.com reports on how a Florida law firm fell victim to a tax scam:  the firm’s bookkeeper received a call purportedly from the IRS saying that it had not received the firm’s month-end payroll tax:

The caller insinuated that unless the IRS could track the payment electronically from her bank account — today — there would be a significant tax penalty assessed. They then asked her for the account number of the firm’s checking account, the bank’s routing number, and the amount of her payroll tax payment so IRS could track her check. It seemed logical to her that IRS would need that information to trace a payment from her bank. Hearing nothing further from the IRS she thought all was okay until she received the following month’s bank statement. She could not balance the firm’s bank account and began looking for a reason why. She then noticed an amount equal to her payroll tax paid to a business she did not know with the notation TEL (Telephone initiated Entry). AND her payroll tax check to IRS cleared. The firm, it seems, had been scammed and not by the IRS.

(Hat Tip:  Reid My Blog!)