Office John White gets around, his new number is a San Antonio number 210-418-4651 - perhaps he transferred.
Similar story to everyone else - he calls, leaves a message barely understandable with a strong Indian Accent saying he's from IRS Tax "Crime" Investigations.
Called him back, he only got my name partially correct (I have 4 names, he only had two) which means he obviously does not have my IRS records in front of him.
Called him back twice, he answered the second time but seemed to be caught off guard and seemed flustered. Put me on hold and never came back. I called him back twice and went right to voicemail. I plan to call John back periodically just to check in and leave long silent messages for him to review.
This guy called my cell phone number. Left a msg for my wife saying she was being charged with a tax felony and to call him so we could resolve it. I found this thread and it was clear that it was a scam. We know we have never done anything wrong when it comes to our taxes. He called back later and said that there is an arrest warrant out for us and they have our address (although IRS never sent us mail about this obviously). Bummed because some people are likely calling this person and getting robbed. If you got robbed you should post in this forum to let people know.
Laurie wrote, "Got the same message from (202) 241-2308. Really? How stupid does he think any of us are??"
Careful.
Is someone has never been scammed and don't know much about how these scams work they could easily fall for this scam. It has much more to do with wisdom and experience vs. intelligence. I think I'm pretty smart and I know about scams and at least for a few minutes I thought this was real. These people are good at scaring people into giving them their money. I know because of the line of work I'm in. All it takes is someone to call back and they can work their magic and get the person to give up their money.
If someone falls for this it does not make them stupid at all. They got taken advantage of. My heart goes out to anyone that was taken advantage of.
I received this call twice.Today I looked up the IRS phone number. I dialed 3 different numbers, all were no longer in service. Could not reach anyone. An 800 number had a wait time of 35 minutes.
I hope the IRS is doing something about this!
These calls are not coming from the IRS or anywhere else in the US government.
Here is a story from FOX 13, Tampa Bay, Florida about these calls. It's the best explanation I've found so far of these calls as well as what to do when you receive one and to whom to report the call and how: