Claimed to be from the United States Attorney's Office. Name Adam Reese. Said there was a warrant out for my arrest for violation of federal banking regulations but I could work out an "offer in compromise" to avoid arrest. Total scam!
Claimed to be with the Drug Enforcement Agency, said his name is David Stone. He sounded like English was not his first language. I've been harassed by bogus callers claiming to be with the DEA in the past and said, "You don't work for the DEA, but I do for the DEA and have never heard of you." He said, "Really?" Then I told him to stop harassing us with his stupid calls. That irritated him and became comically upset (bad acting, but is part of his script, I am certain), so I hung up on him.
My understanding is that these types of "DEA" callers (often the alias used is "Nick Delgado", from the calls that I have received) call with scary claims that you are being investigated for some fake drug charge and are in danger of criminal arrest, but that this agent will do you a favor and make the fake charge "disappear" if you pay him money for his efforts to "help you." That's the goal of these kinds of calls, to separate you from your money. Beware.
Thank you so much, other posters, for this info. This message was so confounding and scary! I tried to return the call but kept getting a fast-busy or a weird single-tone response. Now I know I don't have to!
total scam call purporting to be from the IRS. DO NOT CALL THEM BACK. This was confirmed by the Federal Trade Commission ph#877.382.4357, www.FTC.Gov and all over the news.
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: