I received a message from a gentleman with a heavy India accent saying he was with The Dept. of Legal Affairs and I needed to call back or my attorney to call.He made it sound urgent and that I was in legal trouble.I did call back and it sounded like a call center, lots of calls and noise in the background.I started asking questions who he was and where he got my name and number.He ended up hanging up on me.This was a total scam wanting money from me.Dont fall for it
Confirmed fraud atttempt (Department of Legal Affairs 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:
I received a message from a gentleman with a heavy India accent saying he was with The Dept. of Legal Affairs and I needed to call back or my attorney to call.He made it sound urgent and that I was in legal trouble.I did call back and it sounded like a call center, lots of calls and noise in the background.I started asking questions who he was and where he got my name and number.He ended up hanging up on me.This was a total scam wanting money from me.Dont fall for it
Recieved a telephone call from a James Howard from this number with a heavy India Accent stating he was from the The Dept of Legal Affairs and that I needed to call them Immediately or have my attorney call them regarding enforcement actions that have been started in your name. A friend of mine got this same exact phone call not too long ago, so I know its a scam!
A stranger(scammer) called my home phone claiming to be James Howard, an associate of Dept of Legal Affairs. Indian accent. He stated that I have a legal problem with IRS. His call back number 202- 241-8216. I called back, it showed the number was not registered. It was dialled thru a magic jack. James Howard called me again. I asked his office address: 111 Constitution Ave. North West Suite 5480 Washington DC 20224. I told him straight that he was an amateur scammer. Ha ha.. then I reported to the police dept which gave me advice to beware of these loser predators/scammers."Never give any personal info to them!"