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:
Got a call today. They are in a boiler room making calls. Speaks off of a script and very heavy accent. She says her name is Elizabeth and a woman with a heavy accent does not sound like an Elizabeth where I hear of other outbound calls being made.
I received a call from a male with Indian accent, introducing himself as a IRS investigator stating that I was committing fraud against US government, that I was misleading government and hiding taxes. I had asked him to confirm the information he knew about me, and all he could tell me my residence from 5 years ago.
My girlfriend got this same call saying she hid money and was going to go to jail if she did not pay them. Seems to be from same male person also, very rude and tries to arrange payment plan. I called the number 202-241-8198 and someone named Nick Johnson answered ( Did not say IRS or anything). Do not fall for this scam !!!!
yes i got same call and same warning message. i knew that some calls comming from 202 nos. so that i just not pick up wast my time. when i received voice message i was laughing also when i called back that number always busy. i dont know what the hail they are doing once i called same 202 area code number the person start yalling in hindi and calling my names. i told him that i will chase you around in india and kick your [***] up. so he hung up and since not picking my calls.
I just got a call also from an IRS impersonator, under the name Elizabeth. She wasn't rude and acted really polite and as if she was really concerned. She asked if I received a letter from the IRS saying that there was an investigation against me and that I have not responded. She later told me that there were a few questions she need to asked me first and that this phone call was recorded and anything I say may be used against me. She asked if I've ever been arrested? how long have I lived in the united states? If I was transferring funds from the united states to overseas illegally? If I have ever participated in any illegal activity against the IRS? The first thing that went through my mind was identity theft!!! someone must've taken my identity and did these things. She later says okay now that you've answered the questions, I am going to go ahead and send your file over to our investigation headquarters department and they will contact your local police and the police should come to your house within the next 72 hours and put you in handcuffs and arrest you, is there anything further that you would like to say before I do this? at this point, i'm like WTF??!? umm okay, i don't understand what you're saying? Can you tell me what address, you sent this letter to because I never got it? and I want to understand what you're talking so it'd be best that I read the letter for better understanding on what you're talking about. She replies with ma'am I already told you after you complete the questions I just asked you, I have to follow protocol and forward your file to the investigation department and they will call you local police and the police with put you in handcuffs and arrest you & will hold you temporarily until this investigation is resolved. Later she says, ok ma'am would you like me to speak to my supervisor to seem what other procedures we can take to resolve this matter? 5 minutes later she returns and says that this can be resolved by paying the amount I owe the IRS, $1,870 within the next 24 hours. Do I have the funds available? at this time i'm suspicious, and I even tell her, how do I know this is not a scam, what you expect me to give you my cc over the phone? she replies with no ma'am I do not in any way want your money, you asked if there was any other resolution to this investigation, and this was what my supervisor told me, so I am just following protocol. So at this point i'm thinking to myself, yeah RIGHT. She later mentions something about the police and the money, which was purpose to confuse me. I thought she said, you can go to any local police department & hand over the money, which made it seem believable. So I said, ok sure I'll go to my local police department & I'll give them the money. But she responds with, no that is not what I meant, you do not need to hand the money to anyone. What I was saying was, your local police will come and arrest you in 72 hours and asked me if there was any other way to resolve this issue and according to my supervisor I am just following protocol. Would you like to resolve this issue as discussed, if so I will have to transfer you to our investigation department for suspicious illegal activities, do you agree that? If you I must warn you, you cannot hang up because it will mean you've violated to pay the amount you owe and have decided to ignore our warnings and the police will come to arrest you. You also cannot tell anyone until this is resolved? I answer with, how bout I speak to my lawyer about this? she says, ma'am please put into consideration anything you say to anyone in relation to this investigation may be used against you. At this point I'm like yeah RIGHT, ok sure i'll be on hold. while on hold I discover via google, this phone number they're calling from is a scam & confirms my suspicions! I have to admit she almost duped me because she didn't ask me about $ until later in the conversation, and because she was so not making any sense, it was really confusing to the point all I could understand is that the police was going to come arrest me in 72 hours. In addition to that she was taking advantage of the fact that I was having a hard time understanding and hearing her while I'm surrounded by kids running around noisily! These people are horrible I hope these people get busted and arrested. The number that called me was 2022418198