Scam: Assessor's Office Warns of Impostors
Solicitors are asking taxpayers to hire them to fix property value errors. Here's what you need to know.
Double-check all calls from the Cook County Assessor's Office because the contact may be a scam, a release from the office warns. People claiming to work at the assessor's office are calling residents, saying they have missing exemptions. The scammers then ask taxpayers to hire them to file Certificates of Error on their behalf. The certificate changes a property's assessed value for a past year, correcting the tax bill after the assessment is finalized. Kelley Quinn, communications director for the assessor’s office, said real employees never solicit taxpayers. Many of these so-called tax reps tell people they can get residents more money. "What they don't tell you is... they take 30 to 40 percent of that amount," Quinn said. "The …
Debra
12:26 pm on Friday, January 18, 2013
Nancy, In the incidents that I refer to, the offenders are not Gypsies. Gypsies are of Yugoslavian, Romanian, Russian, Polish and Hungarian descent, often mistakenly described by victims as "Latin/Hispanic” and "foreign-speaking" In these recent incidents, the offenders were of African-American descent. Source: http://www.policemag.com/channel/gangs/articles/2001/06/gypsies-kings-of-con.aspx more ›