I was contacted by what sounded like an Indian call center with very bad English about Mr. Mark Johnson With the IRS and it was urgent that I call him immediately or they would issue a warrant for my arrest they also asked if I had received any information in the mail which I hadn't. I was curious because yes I was out of the country at the time in the military in 2010 and had to file a late return so I called. They put me through to a Mr. Mark Johnson which also sounded Middle Eastern told him who I was he told me what address I lived at and that I need to come to Washington DC or take care of this matter right away or they would put out a warrant for my arrest I stated I had not received anything in the mail and where can I go to the nearest IRS office and bring in mytax record and start collections due process he stated I did not have to go there this was handled at a higher level and I had to contact him in Washington DC and take care of it now. I asked more questions about how much did I owe and how could I take it to my nearest tax office to get this resolved he got belligerent and called me an A hole and hung up I then called him back and the same voice Mark Johnson that I recognize from the earlier conversation told him who I was again asked to speak to his manager about his conduct being a government official he stated that they were going to serve me with a warrant for my arrest and hung up again. I guess the DNC listing doesn't apply to overseas scam artists
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 received what is clearly a scam call from the number 202-241-8212. I was told it was the U.S. Treasury calling and that if I didn't call back, I would be in legal trouble.