Treasury chief almost fell victim to financial scam

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday said someone once tried to scam him on the phone.

Lew was appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” where he discussed the 290,000 scam calls the IRS has recorded since October 2013.

{mosads}Nearly 3,000 people have fallen for the scams and have lost $14 million. 

Lew said he almost fell victim to one.

“I actually have gotten those calls like other people do,” he said. “It was on my phone machine. I looked at the phone number, I put it in Google, and it turned out it was a well-known scam,” he said. 

Lew warned the public to be “very careful” when they receive snail mail, emails or phone calls soliciting financial information. 

He also said that the IRS would never call someone and solicit financial information.

“The IRS doesn’t work that way,” he said. “The easiest way not to fall for those scams is to look up the phone number.”