Got a call from a man with an accent claiming to be Roy Bernard at US Treasury looking for another family member. Clue was caller ID said Out of Area and he blamed my phone8). Also heard a lot of other conversations in the background like it was a call center. I our family did not call back. He sounded just like the jerk that calls every other month wanting to fix my PC but this guy claims he wasn't interested in my PC, maybe he changed jobs.
Got a call from a man with a decent accent claiming to be Steven Davis at US Treasury looking for another family member. I took the message which asked he also be reached at extension 1118. When my family member called it back they got a message Jet Customer Not Available. I am thinking this is a scam
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://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:
Got a call from a man with an accent claiming to be Roy Bernard at US Treasury looking for another family member. Clue was caller ID said Out of Area and he blamed my phone8). Also heard a lot of other conversations in the background like it was a call center. I our family did not call back. He sounded just like the jerk that calls every other month wanting to fix my PC but this guy claims he wasn't interested in my PC, maybe he changed jobs.
Funny thing I just got a call from a man named (supposedly) Roy Bernard at the US Treasury looking for a daughter who hasn't lived at my phone number for over 10 years and has been married with a different last name than mine to boot. He called from 202-241-7504 also. He had an accent and I could hear background noise. I asked where he was calling from as I thought it was a scam and he said Washington, DC. In the western states we usually get correspondence from UT or elsewhere not Washington, DC. My daughter figured it was a scam too and didn't even want the number he left me to call him back.