Please Mention IRS -> USA Tax Authorities , world is way bigger than united states of America.
I personally had to google it
Not really necessary as you said, you only had to google it.I personally had to google it
This isn't really new sadly. It's been going on in Canada for years, likely the US as well. When it was getting really bad most of the ATM's I knew of had signage all around specifically debunking this and other scams demanding BTC payment. The worst was when they were calling from the government asking for gift cards.
You would think after all of this they would send out a leaflet or something that specifically states, we do not accept
For example, we can take the case from Australia which is at least 2 years old, or this cases from Canada1 & Canada2. Fraudsters are obviously choosing targets when it comes to who they will try to deceive, and those who do not know the law and regulations, and may have entered the country illegally, seem to be the first to choose.
I think it's more like a scatter shot and see what sticks. Most people do not understand the laws. They think we have come so far along with technology that governments must be on the cutting edge. Crypto has become fairly mainstream and people have been hearing about it long enough they just assume it's plausible. 
