I have received 5 message in last 3 weeks, the most recent one from 202 241 7093. These are fraud monkeys from pretend-IRS - all around tax fraud and threats. The first message felt like Indian/Pakistani accent. The second was from a guy with an American accent. The third from an East Asian, probably Chinese accent. They slipped in their fourth call, where there was background Muslim chatter. The fifth message was earlier today, but it broke off incomplete. A big gang, most likely of Muslims, is involved in this IRS scam.
IRS Scam call, saying deficiencies in my income tax payments and the IRS is filing a criminal case against me, and started reading “counts” to me. - Bogus
The truth is the IRS usually first contacts people by mail – not by phone – about unpaid taxes. And the IRS won’t ask for payment using a pre-paid debit card or wire transfer. The IRS also won’t ask for a credit card number over the phone.
“If someone unexpectedly calls claiming to be from the IRS and uses threatening language if you don’t pay immediately, that is a sign that it really isn’t the IRS calling,” he said.
The callers who commit this fraud often:
•Use common names and fake IRS badge numbers.
•Know the last four digits of the victim’s Social Security Number.
•Make caller ID information appear as if the IRS is calling.
•Send bogus IRS e-mails to support their scam.
•Call a second time claiming to be the police or department of motor vehicles, and the caller ID again supports their claim.
If you get a call from someone claiming to be with the IRS asking for a payment, here’s what to do:
•If you owe Federal taxes, or think you might owe taxes, hang up and call the IRS at 800-829-1040. IRS workers can help you with your payment questions.
•If you don’t owe taxes, call and report the incident to TIGTA at 800-366-4484.
•You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.FTC.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments in your complaint
Received at least two calls with a recorded message supposedly from the Internal Revenue service asking me to get back to them and that the information is "extremely time sensitive". Phone number is 202-241-7093
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://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:
I moved away from home over a decade ago. My parents received one of these calls 'for me' at their home today. Message was the same as the others depicted here. Something like this:
"(My name), the issue at hand is extremely serious. This is officer June Smith with the IRS. Call the IRS hotline @ 202-241-7093. Return the call b/f we take action against you. Don't disregard this message."
My mom checked the caller id and the # checks out & time was 6:20 pm today. However id was blocked and only read 'out of area'. They called @ 11:30 am as well.
The IRS knows where I work and live. They can find me if they want to and it's not 2,000 miles away.
Report the Calls to the real IRS here:
•report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
•You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov. Add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments in your complaint.
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Do consider maybe getting a call blocking device or phone.. You can google them and many are around $60.00 or so.