The IRS will not call you by telephone directly to solicit payment.

The knowledge of that simple fact on someone else's part, even if not her own, saved a West Des Moines woman $40,000.

KCCI says Cab driver Scott Kilmer was driving the unnamed 83-year-old to the bank. Business as usual, until they started conversing and the woman told him she was on the way to the bank to get money following a phone call from the "IRS" stating she had a relative out east who needed it.

Kilmer reported it to the Iowa Attorney General's office immediately, knowing such a call would not be legitimate, and saved his passenger from a costly mistake.

Scams like this are the number 1 problem addressed by the attorney general's office among people over 60, said spokesperson Lynn Hicks. A quick-thinking cab driver who knew better, even if his passenger didn't, was a hero who saved the day.

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