I got a voicemail stating that she was an IRS officer, JULIE SMITH. When I called this number, a man with a heavy accent
answered and told me that the sheriff would be at my door to arrest me in an hour because the IRS was suing me for tax deficiency and for "stealing from the IRS".
This is a Pakistan or India based IRS scam. Do not fall for it. The IRS does not initiate any legal action via phone.
Read http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2014-03.htm
As general background information, here are a few things you can do:
1) Report it to TIGTA under http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml especially if you have become a victim (lost money, gave personal information etc.). You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov/complaint (include “IRS Telephone Scam" in your complaint). This way you can also help the government establish specific fraud patterns.
2) Help kill their phone lines but not by calling them back directly (the number may be spoofed and repeat calls by you may - under exceptional circumstances- amount to harassment). The scammers use Voice over IP lines (e.g. magicJack (Ymax corporation)) to make it seem as if they are calling from the US. This is always against these companys' terms of service and can lead to immediate termination of their contract and blocking of their IP addresses for future attempts to register. Do a reverse look up of their telephone number (e.g. www.whitepages.com) to identify the Voice over IP provider and report it to the company and/or law enforcement (local police and/or state attorney general)
3) If you are really annoyed: call or write to your representative in Congress. As these scams happen all over the country maybe this will trigger a reaction and provide US law enforcement agencies with the political backing and the resources they need to work in India and Pakistan together with local authorities (it can happen, read: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-cen ... mmission-320427). A US task force has already been set up in Jamaica to nab scammers there (see http://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/library/reports/cornerstone/cornerstone7-1.pdf). You can use the following template for your letter (more powerful!) or email:
Just got this phone hooked up and just got call from this person claiming to be from the IRS. My spouse works for the federal government so I know this is a scam. Do not fall for it.
I received this call yesterday and returned it today. It sounded "fishy" when I talked to the bogus representative. He tried to use scare tactics stating that I will be arrested in 1 hour, property would be seized, etc. I'm assuming that I will get a follow-up call asking for money to settle this "debt". PLEASE DON'T FALL FOR THIS SCAM AND INFORM EVERYONE THAT YOU KNOW,
I just got called from this phone number a few hours ago. They left a message saying to not ignore them for the "matter"is time sensitive. They also said if i didnt call back they would take immediate action. Its a scam do not fall for it