I just received a call today. My " IRS agent" did not like it too much when I laughed and said " Really? Great Scam dude!!" I am curious if there is any criteria that makes you a target or is it totally random? They person they asked for happened to be from Germany.
received a phone call at my place of business stating that an Officer from the IRS named Brian Johnson is trying to reach me regarding a case that was filed against me
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:
I just received a call today. My " IRS agent" did not like it too much when I laughed and said " Really? Great Scam dude!!" I am curious if there is any criteria that makes you a target or is it totally random? They person they asked for happened to be from Germany.
I got a call from this morning from someone claiming to be from the IRS. I knew it was someone trying to sell me something but I played along with them when they said that they were just calling to let me know that they were from the IRS AUDIT department and that the local police would be coming to arrest me for tax fraud. I didn't hang up on them, but I didn't give them the reaction they expected so before they got past trying to scare me and then going into their speal, they hung up on me. I think we should get as many people as possible to flood their phone line with crank calls so they are to busy to scam other people who might not be savy enought to know they are not legit.
I got a call from 2022410649 and it went to voice mail and they left a message that IRS is auditing etc etc. I don't understand why FCC or congress get these guys and put them in jails for ever under scam