Caller ID had PRO RES OFC ( pretending to be Office of Professional Responsibility) and the Phone # was 1-800-829-1040 ( pretending to be IRS hotline). Voice mail was asking us to call back @ 202-509-0681 and the contact person was Kevin James/Jones - Criminal Investigations Officer. When we called back, the way the Officer spoke was not sounding right, though he quoted Internal Revenue code and the read out the list of violations with respective code. The crime charged is money laundering with the intent to evade tax. As we were on the phone, we were checking the IRS website also and somehow landed on the page for Tax scams where there was an article about this Telephone scam. But we couldn't ignore also as the Caller ID was looking genuine and the threats from the Officer like Arrest, Deport, fine of 245,000 etc.. really got us. Looks like immigrants are being targeted, especially the ones who became US citizens recently. Most of the immigrants send money outside US regularly to support their relatives back home which is being targeted for this scam. This call really got us as we started to believe, may be we missed something.. A day of our life went in calling IRS hotline, our CPA, and in looking for Local Taxpayer Advocate to confirm that this is really a scam. Finally we came across this blog that gave us the relief.
But he does seems to know our Phone information, our address and our last 4 digits of SSN. We did not give out the full SSN luckily. But who knows he might be having that also. Please visit irs.gov and register your Phone numbers in the National registry for donotcall list. Hope we are not victims of Identity theft.
Thanks you bloggers.
I just got that same prank call, I am sick and tired of these pranksters, where do they get this information from. I do not have any prior tax debts, that is how I knew this was a prank, to everyone out there, be very careful, do not give out money or valuable information.
I received a call this morning. It went to voice mail. It was from Kevin Smith from Pro Res Ofc and the call back number was 804-554-3033. I found this blog so I didn't call back. I am so thankful for this information.