Who called from 2022410730

We received a very distorted call today at 12:33 from a "Criminal Investigation Officer", from IRS in Washington. He said his name was officer "Maghamus"...he had a very strong Indian accent and we listened 10 times to try to understand what he was saying. There were sentences like "you're hiding ...(money?) from Federal Government" and need to call back ASAP "to rectify the situation". The back ground was very loud, with people talking...we checked the called ID to get the phone number because it was impossible to understand what he was saying.
IRS is warning the public about this type of calls and I'm convinced this is a scam especially that IRS will NEVER contact you by phone or email.

I am glad I looked up the 202 241 0730 phone nr. I am sure "officer David Parker" from Criminal investigation Dep. in Washington DC was calling me from India, considering his strong accent.

Scam, scam, scam. Trying to tell me that I needed to pay 10% tax on money spent while traveling overseas. Very strong accent. Identified himself as officer Jonathan Lloyd. Asked him to provide me with a badge number and of course he gave me a fake number. Threaten to send my case to the local police unless I settle somehow with one of their lawyers. Just idiotic but it makes you wonder how many people actually fall victim to this. Call your local police department and report them. It's the only way we can hope to fight back on this kind of crap.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today warned consumers about a sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, throughout the country.

Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

“This scam has hit taxpayers in nearly every state in the country.  We want to educate taxpayers so they can help protect themselves.  Rest assured, we do not and will not ask for credit card numbers over the phone, nor request a pre-paid debit card or wire transfer,” says IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel. “If someone unexpectedly calls claiming to be from the IRS and threatens police arrest, deportation or license revocation if you don’t pay immediately, that is a sign that it really isn’t the IRS calling.” Werfel noted that the first IRS contact with taxpayers on a tax issue is likely to occur via mail
Other characteristics of this scam include:
Scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers. They generally use common names and surnames to identify themselves.
Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security Number.
Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it’s the IRS calling.
Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.
Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.
After threatening victims with jail time or driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:
If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue – if there really is such an issue.
If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.
If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov.  Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint.
Taxpayers should be aware that there are other unrelated scams (such as a lottery sweepstakes) and solicitations (such as debt relief) that fraudulently claim to be from the IRS.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to be vigilant against phone and email scams that use the IRS as a lure. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information.  This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels. The IRS also does not ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Recipients should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the message. Instead, forward the e-mail to [email protected].

More information on how to report phishing scams involving the IRS is available on the genuine IRS website, IRS.gov.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Warns-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam

First caller had very heavy Indian accent but it was followed up by a woman who spoke much more clearly. She Identified herself as Kathy Brown from Crime Investigation unit of Internal Revenue Service. She knew my name and address. Told me that there is an arrest warrant issued and I am being charged with breaking tax law and immigration law. Since I am a tax accountant I knew right the way that it does not make sense becuase I did not receive any correspondence and the three charges she mentioned (I don't remember last accusation) had nothing to do with each other. I was curious where it leads to so I wanted to listen and I was asked how many times I took vacations abroad in the past year. I told her that I am not answering this question and I was asked "do you want me to send a police officer to arrast you right now?". This was enough for me and I started to laugh. However, I diald back the number and there is a recording saying that it is a Crime Investigation unit of Internal Revenue Service. It is scary because many people may fall for this. I wonder if there is something that can be done to shut it down or it is out of reach as an offshore operation?