This number has called me close to 30 times in the last two weeks. I have turned off my answering machine, which means legitimate calls to me cannot leave a message. I feel harassed by these calls.
Person with heavy Asian accent claimed to be Steve Johnson from the IRS. Said I was in trouble for tax fraud and better call them back at 1-888-393-2430. But neither the 202 or the 888 number seem in any way connected with the IRS, based on a google search.
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:
Thanks- I thought it was a fishing call, I have had some version of this number calling and knew it was a scam.. the number that called me was 1-202-470-0159. Some version of Middle East dialect I beleive; calling saying that it was the IRS and was delinquent on taxes.. I hung up and looked up the number to see if there were other complaints.