The Maui County Police Department is warning isle residents about a telephone scam in which a woman caller claiming to be a U.S. Department of Treasury officer will tell her target that a tax lawsuit has been filed against them and to make a payment to avoid being arrested.

In a news release, Maui police officials said several senior residents described receiving an automated message on their home phone from a female “officer” claiming to be from the Department of the Treasury. The message states that there has been a tax lawsuit filed against the resident and if they do not call back right away, they will be in trouble with the Department of the Treasury. The phone number of the caller has a New York City area code.

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of the Inspector General, this automated message is a scam and that the people who do return the phone calls encounter threatening or abusive language from those who answer. The victims are told they need to make immediate payment in order to avoid being arrested.

The Department of the Treasury, Office of the Inspector General, has posted on its website a warning that states this type of phone call is a variation of fake calls from the U.S. Department of the Treasury or Internal Revenue Service in an attempt to scam residents.

The Treasury does not have such a program, Maui police officials said. Likewise, emails promising a sum of money and purporting to be from the Treasury Secretary or his staff are also false.

A similar scam making the rounds involves a caller falsely representing that he is from the Internal Revenue Service or impersonating an investigator from the Treasury Department and demanding payment or information. These callers have been described as threatening or abusive and tell victims they need to make immediate payment to forestall arrest.

For more information about these types of phone scams, visit https://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/ig/Pages/fraud-alerts_index2.aspx.