left voice message - is IRS scam phonecall - said "Hi officer Julie Smith from Internal Revenue Service and the hotline to my division is 202-241-7165. I repeat it's 202-241-7165. Don't disregard this message and do return the call before we take any action against you. Goodbye and take care."
left voice message - is IRS scam phonecall - said "Hi officer Julie Smith from Internal Revenue Service and the hotline to my division is 202-241-7165. I repeat it's 202-241-7165. Don't disregard this message and do return the call before we take any action against you. Goodbye and take care."
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://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 keep calling every 15 minutes and telling them they are not the IRS. They gave up and told me that they were from Pakistan. I had fun bugging them, they have not picked up my call again. I think everyone should call them back with*67 to block your number and bug them so they stop doing this.
received same voice message on a Saturday afternoon. Received call 2 days later stating that I had an affidavit against me and everything could be seized and I could be arrested and sent to prison. They also stated that if I didn't have an attorney, one would be provided for me.