They are Indian scammer/extortionists. The use 202 area code in an effort to make you think that they are calling from Washington DC. They are total scam artists. Ignore them.
I received a call from a man called Jonathan Reed with heavy indian accent saying I awe the department of tax and revenue a debt. when i called back with the number a lady with heavy indian accent was on the answering machine. I don't know if this is indian department of tax and revenue or not, and why the hell they prefered to use DCs call number.
They are Indian scammer/extortionists. The use 202 area code in an effort to make you think that they are calling from Washington DC. They are total scam artists. Ignore them.
Just received a call from an Indian accent man saying he was the IRS - I called back and left a message and the answering machine actually said that it was the IRS - 2 minutes later they called back and spoke with him, he put another foreign man on the phone who said there was a mistake on our tax return for the years 2008 and 2009 and that the paperwork was sent to my address (and he told me my correct address and name) - as we further discussed it, my cousin was also on the phone with me listening - and the connection got bad and the call dropped - we have not heard from him since.
I had two messages from this number. One for myself and one for my son, who doesn't even live here anymore. It was definitely an Indian accent and the connection was a bit jumbled but I did understand that he was calling about a tax fraud issue and to avoid arrest I needed to call him immediately. Guessing this was 99% a scam, I called and got the voice mail of a woman who answered it was a government office making calls by 'their company.' Again, I didn't understand everything because there seemed to be a lot of "air" on the connection, but I left my phone number. I called back again, and got just "air". Not knowing if anyone was on the other end, I said "We need to report these people to the IRS. Never heard back from them again.
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. 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: