The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a scam involving federal tax payments — the latest in a rising number of efforts to rip off Mainers.

A Cumberland County resident received a letter in the mail from an entity claiming to be the “Federal Tax Authorities” that said the resident had unpaid taxes and that a lien had been put on their house, the sheriff’s office said in an alert Monday.

The letter instructed the recipient not to dismantle or remove anything from their home, and to call a phone number to pay their back taxes. If the recipient didn’t pay up, the letter suggested, the home might be seized and the recipient’s bank accounts garnished.

Similar scams have occurred in other states, the sheriff’s office says.

“No credible institution will demand cash transactions,” the sheriff’s office said.

Scams are on the rise in Maine. Last year, Maine saw 1,058 complaints of scammers impersonating government officials or agencies, up from 847 in 2023 and 735 in 2022, according to data collected by the Federal Trade Commission.

There were even more complaints of scammers impersonating businesses, which can include electric companies and other utilities. Maine saw 1,346 such complaints in 2024, which was higher than any year from 2020 to 2022, but just shy of the 1,358 reported in 2023.

Along with complaints, the number of victims in Maine has been trending upward in recent years, according to a Press Herald analysis of FBI cybercrime data.

Earlier this summer, a scam campaign involving phony highway toll collections prompted a warning from the secretary of state’s office. Text messages claiming to be from Maine’s “Department” of Motor Vehicles demanded that receivers provide credit card information for purported overdue payments or face consequences, such as a suspension of their vehicle registration.

Those with questions about the credibility of suspicious letters, emails or texts are encouraged to seek advice from a financial institution in person or to call local law enforcement for guidance, the sheriff’s office said.