By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding the proliferation of a letter purportedly sent on behalf of the United States Internal Revenue Service requesting sensitive information from Bahamians. The letter has been sent to several local professionals.

Yesterday, Superintendent Paul Rolle, head of the Central Detective Unit confirmed that at least one complaint about the letter was received by police. Mr Rolle urged anyone who was sent the letter via email or fax to contact police. 

“Police are advising persons not to fill out any of the information it is requesting and send it to anyone. Notify the police and we will take it from there,” Mr Rolle said.

The warning came after The Tribune was alerted to the situation by a local doctor who said “red flags were raised” when he received the letter last Tuesday by fax.

The doctor, who did not want to be named, said: “The first thing is that I am not an American citizen, so why would the IRS ask for my personal bank account number and other things? It raised red flags. I decided not to fill this out, but to research this and I grew to understand that this is some type of fraud. It took place in Belize and other Caribbean countries. Bahamians need to know about this. It is a dangerous thing.”

The sender of the letter, claiming to be “David Smith, director of information”, asks for the nationality, date of birth, country of permanent residence, profession, bank name and account number, branch address, the date and amount of the last deposit in addition to passport and driver’s licence number among other things.

The letter said: “Our records indicate that you are a non-resident alien. As a result you are exempted from United States of America tax reporting and withholdings on interest paid on your account and other financial dealing to protect your exemption from tax on your account and other financial benefits in rectifying you exemption status.

“Therefore you are to authenticate the following by completing form W-8BEN and return to us as soon as possible through the fax number 1-206-743-0335.

“Please complete form W-8BEN and return to us within one week from the receipt of this letter by faxing it, to enable us to update your records immediately if your account or any other financial benefits are not rectified in a timely manner, it will be subject to USA tax reporting and back up withholding (if back up withholding applies), we are required to withhold 30 per cent of the interest paid to you.

“We appreciate your co-operation in helping us to protect your exempt status and also update our records.”