Confirmed fraud attempt (investigation division of IRS script). 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://m.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-centr ... 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:
Confirmed fraud attempt (investigation division of IRS script). 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://m.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-centr ... 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:
Obnoxious dude with Middle Eastern accent calling from DC telling me that I need to appear in court or be arrested. Probably 3rd time he called (sounds like some dufus). First time, he even left a call back number. Have reported this to my ccongressman, Rep. Adam Smith, but clearly nothing has been done. My concern is that an elderly person could be scammed by these SOB's
I have been receiving several calls a day for about 3 weeks now with no message left. But today they left a voice message which was an Indian man stating that he works for the investigation dept. for the IRS that there is a warrant for my arrest if I don't contact them and they left a phone number. So I called the number and a english speaking womans voice says this is the IRS criminal division please leave your name and number that someone will call me back. I contacted my state attornery dept. and it is a new ongoing scam so I was told to call the FTC and file a complaint which I did.
An Indian or Pakistani-sounding guy has called me twice from this number; once he left a message saying he was from the IRS and there was a warrant for my arrest that he was going to refer to the local police department for them to serve it on me, but that I should call him back to see if we could "dispose of the charges" before that. This morning someone (sounded like the same guy) called again, using a different name, and said he was from the "Criminal Division of the IRS." I told him to stop calling and trying to scam me but I have to say, he was a pretty good actor!
Received a call from this number today. Caller had strong accent Pakistani or Indian. He addressed my partner by the last name of my ex husband and proceeded to tell him there was an arrest warrant for him in Washington DC. My partner kept asking what the call was in regard to but the caller just kept talking about this arrest warrant and how a notification had been sent and now it was being turned over to the local police. Clearly a scam!!!