I received 3 calls from this number and ignored them. Finally on the 4th call I answered as it was disrupting during my workday. The man had an Indian accent and claimed to be from the IRS. He informed me that there were misappropriations on my tax returns which made it look as though I was trying to hide money. He said that once the call was over, the police would be coming to arrest me and I would be detained for 72 hours. At this point, I started to panic, only because I do my own taxes and there's a very good chance I've messed something up, but not likely to the point that I would be arrested. He asked me several basic questions: when did I first start filing, when did I last file, how did I file (CPA, Turbo Tax, etc). I asked him how this could possibly happen without me having any warning and he said notices had been sent to me. I told him I needed to speak to someone about this before I got arrested so he transferred me to his supervisor. Looking back now, the voice of the first man and the voice of the supervisor sounded very similar, both Indian, and they may have actually just been the same person! The "supervisor" said he wanted to help me and would give me instructions to "dissolve the case." He told me I owed $4913 and it would have to be in cash. Also, while he was speaking on the recorded line, he told me I was not able to have any third party contact...
If I was willing to pay, he would start the dissolvement process, but once it was started I couldn't change my mind. I realized then (and I was also in my boss' office writing down to him what was going on and he told me it was a scam) and told the "supervisor" I needed to speak to my CPA before I went through with this. He said, "you know at the end of this call you will arrested" and I said "yes." His response was "well then there's nothing I can do ma'am...deal with it!" and hung up the phone. I contacted my local police dept just to make sure there was no warrant and they informed me it was a scam as well.
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:
Man, I'm starting to wish that I had looked up this number before I answered a call from this number. Essentially, I was harassed by some dude with a heavy Indian accent saying that I would be arrested for misappropriations on taxes that I filed years ago. After a while I just hung up because I figured that if I were really in trouble then I'd just face it and live to see another day. But if it weren't for the fact that I'm already having to deal with the IRS on an entirely different issue, I wouldn't have picked up the phone at the sight of this number on my caller ID even though I know IRS usually doesn't call people. Reporting this to the appropriate people and authorities as RexIRS suggests.
I checked the number before I answered and found that it is scam.
I played with them and tried to get any information from them, but they are smart and would hang-up as soon as feeling that somebody is questioning them.