The overlap of tax season and snowbird season in Florida can only mean one thing: It’s time to rip off the seniors again.

Seniors need to always be on guard against scammers, Jeff Atwater, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, warned in the latest entry of his email newsletter Dollars & Sense.

But topping Atwater’s list of “the most recent scams that have been used to target seniors” is one that could actually be an urban myth: the “Can You Hear Me Now?” scam.

It reportedly works like this: Scammers call potential victims asking questions like “Can you hear me now?” that are intended to trick victims into answering “Yes.”

Later on, the warnings say, the scammers use that recorded “yes” to somehow obtain authorization to steal victims’ money.

Various versions of the story have been circulated in recent weeks by law enforcement agencies and news outlets across the country, including CBS News.

Atwater’s version, released Wednesday, conflates that scam with others in which scammers pose as bill collectors for the Internal Revenue Service.

“Callers claiming to be from the IRS ask the question, ‘Can you hear me now?’ The scammers record the consumer’s response and if the consumer says “Yes,” the caller hangs up and calls back,” Atwater wrote. “During this second conversation, the caller asks the consumer if they are aware of money that is owed and that the consumer must provide payment. The caller then uses the previous ‘yes’ recording to manipulate the phone records to show false proof of the consumer acknowledging and agreeing to provide the payments.”

The website Snopes.com, which checks the validity of rumors, recently cast doubt on whether the reported scam is real.

In a report posted Jan. 24, Snopes’ reporter Kim LaCapria judged the validity of the “Can You Hear Me Now?” scam reports as “Unproven.”

LaCapria noted that Snopes.com hasn’t been able to identify any scenario “under which a scammer could authorize charges in another person’s name simply by possessing a voice recording of that person saying ‘yes,’ without also already possessing a good deal of personal and account information for that person, and without being able to reproduce any other form of verbal response from that person.”

Even if such a scenario existed, LaCapria wrote, why would a scammer need an audio reporting of a victim saying “yes” rather than simply providing that answer themselves?

“As far as we know, phone companies, utilities, and credit card issuers don’t maintain databases of voice recordings of their customers and use them to perform real-time audio matching to verify identities during customers service calls.”

Finally, the Snopes report said, none of the news reports about the supposed scam included interviews with anyone claiming to have lost money in such a scam — just people saying they’ve been asked “Can you hear me?”

Asked whether Atwater was aware of any specific complaints connected to the “Can You Hear Me Now?” scam, spokeswoman Ashley Carr responded: “This new scam is circulating the country and Floridians should be on the watch for it. The Department is aware of complaints in several states across the [country], as well as aware of reports of potential Florida complaints already.”

Atwater’s office does not take complaints related to the scam, Carr said, adding scams should be reported to the state Attorney General’s Office.

That office has received just one complaint — a man from The Villages who answered “yes” when asked at the end of a detailed survey when asked whether he planned to vote in midterm elections, according to a spokesman. “I later researched the telephone number to learn [it] was associated with a ‘say yes scam’,” the Jan. 31 complaint said. He didn’t lose any money.

Atwater tied his warnings to tax filing season and February being “Senior Independence Month.” He noted that while talks with the elders about independent living and home safety may have already begun, “discussing how to protect our seniors is equally as important.”

Other scams cited in Atwater’s newsletter entry are the “Grandparent Scam,” in which callers claim to be a grandchild arrested in another country and needs money to get back to the U.S. and “Debt Collection” — phony debt collectors who demand money to cover unpaid debts.

The Debt Collection scam has been a thorn in the IRS’ side for several years. 

But along with their warnings, law enforcement agencies and the IRS have had no trouble producing victims who have reported receiving phone calls from scammers claiming to be from the tax collection agency and warning of immediate arrest if the victim doesn’t pay up immediately.

The IRS never calls taxpayers to collect debts, the agency always points out. 

rhurtibise@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4071, twitter: twitter.com/ronhurtibise

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