I received a message from someone, with a heavy accent (middle eastern/Hispanic), from telephone number (323)786-8580. This person left me a couple of messages.
I finally contacted them from my work today, and did provide them the number they initially contacted me at, above, for reference. They said I had legal charges for tax fraud against me and I had a warrant out for my arrest and asked if I received any paperwork, which I declined. He then said he was going to “read me the affidavit” and asked me not to interrupt him until he was finished. I immediately told them obviously I would have received something from the IRS if this were true, and that I would contact my tax person and hung up.
I realized this sounded very suspicious and called back to get their address and they hung up. I called again, it went to a voice mail that said I reached:
Officer Michael Lee
Dept of Legal Affairs US Treasury
Received call from person with a foreign accent. Hard to understand. Said he was with the Bureau of Legal Affairs of the IRS in Washington DC. Said there was a legal case pending. His name was Michael Lee and said to call and ask for him to take care of this legal issue. Second time I received a call of this kind. The first was for someone else I knew and they needed to contact them to take care of a legal issue filed against them before it was turned over to someone else. This is troublesome that they have names and phone numbers that aren't listed in the person's name. Not sure what the scam is, but not going to respond and will block the number.
The IRS sends letters via the post office if there is a problem. Their scam is to scare you with arrest so you pay them for the FAKE charge to go away - extortion!
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 but not by calling them back directly (the number may be spoofed and repeat calls by you may - under exceptional circumstances - amount to harassment). 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://m.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-centr ... 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 just had a message for me, that came through a phone number I haven't been connected to for 10+ years. This time it was purportedly Jeff Thomas with the Dept of Legal Affairs, calling my father-in-law's number.
As others have said, this is a scam. I deal with the IRS in my business all the time. And the IRS NEVER EVER calls or emails. They only communicate via mail.
This same guy called my parents' house. I just happened to be here for the Easter holiday. Same story. Got frustrated when I questioned him. He gave the name Larry Rogers at the US Treasury - 909-343-1561