A call from this number came on my phone. I missed the call. The caller left a message. The message said, "We are the Internal Revenue Service. Please call us back before we take action against you." I returned the call. A message said, "The mail box is full." I don't recognize this number. Also, I assume the IRS would contact me by mail, not by a phone call. I would like this cleared up please.
Most likely a scammer pretending to be the IRS in order to extort money from you.
See:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Report-Phishing
If you get any call from someone claiming to be anybody that requires your personal or account info or requires you to send money to win or be sued or arrested, STOP!
It may be a scam.
Get as much info from them, without giving any info of your own and hang up.
Then call back using a legitimate phone number for the company or organization obtained from the phone book or operator, not a number the possible scammer told you to call, and find out if it was a legit call or not.
A call from this number came on my HOME phone. I missed the call. The caller left a message. The message said, "We are the Internal Revenue Service. You or your Attorney need to call us back before we take action against you." I am calling the IRS now. I dont owe the IRS and I dont think they will threaten you by phone. There was an implied threat that if you dont call.......
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://m.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-centr ... 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: