We received the same this this morning...a call saying that there has been and arrest warrant issued for my husband...again a caller with a heavy accent, saying he was the supervisor when I asked. He said his name was Ronald Arthur from the crime investigation division of the IRS and they had sent a letter in December and one in February about taxes we owe. We have our taxes done professionally every year. He said we owe $2965 from 2012 and that if we want to avoid lawyer and court fees, the government would like that too and so he can send a local law enforcement officer and two other people (I forget who he said...) and they would come to my house and we need to be ready to give them the money. I called our CPA and he said it's scam but now there's a twist that someone will come to the house. Very scary!!!
This is the third time we received this call. Claiming to be from the IRS and investigating a crime against my husband. Heavy accent. Did not sound like a crime investigator with a closing of god bless!
The number is different but the message is the same, always from the District of Columbia.
I just received the same call stating there's a warrant for my arrest because of tax fraud.
I am a victim of identity theft.
It is a fake number and I'm taking it to the FBI to investigate.
More than 20,000 taxpayers have been targeted by fake Internal Revenue Service agents in the largest phone scam the agency has ever seen, the IRS inspector general said Thursday.
Thousands of victims have lost a total of more than $1 million.
As part of the scam, fake IRS agents call taxpayers, claim they owe taxes, and demand payment using a prepaid debit card or a wire transfer. Those who refuse are threatened with arrest, deportation or loss of a business or driver's license, said J. Russell George, Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
Real IRS agents usually contact people first by mail, George said. And they don't demand payment by debit card, credit card or wire transfer.
The inspector general's office started receiving complaints about the scam in August. Immigrants were the primary target early on, the IG's office said. But the scam has since become more widespread.
Tax scams often escalate during filing season, George said. People have been targeted in nearly every state.
"This is the largest scam of its kind that we have ever seen," George said in a statement. "The increasing number of people receiving these unsolicited calls from individuals who fraudulently claim to represent the IRS is alarming."
The script is similar in many calls, leading investigators to believe they are connected. The inspector general's office is working with major phone carriers to try to track the origins of the calls, the IG's office said.
The scam has been effective in part because the fake agents mask their caller ID, making it look like the call is coming from the IRS, George said. In some cases, fake agents know the last four digits of Social Security numbers, and follow up with official-looking emails.
They request prepaid debit cards because they are harder to trace than bank cards. Prepaid debit cards are different from bank cards because they are not connected to a bank account. Instead, consumers buy the cards at stores, and use them just like a bank card, until the money runs out or they add more.
We got this call informing us of committing tax fraud, not documenting our source of income, and that "they" are making a warrant for our arrest. He even said, "Since you aren't complying I'm going to hang up. Hug your wife for the last time because you are going to be arrested."