This was a spam call saying he was a police officer, I had a warrant out for arrest and that my address was under investigation. They wanted to know if I'd received the documents mailed to me 3 months ago and would I confirm my address so they can make sure they sent it to the right place... As if!
This was a spam call saying he was a police officer, I had a warrant out for arrest and that my address was under investigation. They wanted to know if I'd received the documents mailed to me 3 months ago and would I confirm my address so they can make sure they sent it to the right place... As if!
Confirmed fraud attempt (criminal 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. 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:
Received a call at 5:30pm from a very disjointed robot sounding thing that said I needed to return the call this very second! Or I will be arrested! Or my lawyer could call them back! Or something... Said it was Officer Annie Wilson (Heart?) and if I didn't call back she would arrest me! DO NOT DELETE THIS MESSAGE UNTIL YOU CALL BACK!!
All of the above was left on my home answering machine. LOL! As if....
Oh, my caller ID showed Washington DC! :D