I received a voice mail yesterday from 234-301-5630 telling me that it was the IRS and I needed to call back immediately since they have been trying to reach me and they wanted to inform me that the IRS was filing a law suit against me. and to immediately call 202-747-2169. I was pretty sure this was not legit because I always heard the IRS WILL NOT CALL they will correspond by mail.
I had a message on my machine and being it was related to IRS of course I returned the call. As soon as I heard the voice I knew something was amiss....I know for a fact that if you have IRS issues, you are contacted BY U.S. MAIL When I questioned this I was told that they no longer are able to use mail to contact the public for these issues and that all correspondance was done over the phone. That I had to either resolve my financial issue today (I do not have a financial issue) or My home, car and bank accounts would be seized and I'd face jail time. Seriously? Over the small amount of money they claimed I owe?
So I asked for proof and backup. She just kept telling me I needed to agree to pay the amount before anything else. Right. I'll just right on that.
I said I wanted a supervisor. She said to call back in 15 minutes after she spoke with him. Sure.
I immediately called my bank and logged online. This page popped right up and my bank man and I laughed hard.
Besides, No foreigner with an accent THAT THICK is named Christine Martin... Badge # SA2059 Or Jacquiline Olson Badge # SA7154
I received a voice mail yesterday from 234-301-5630 telling me that it was the IRS and I needed to call back immediately since they have been trying to reach me and they wanted to inform me that the IRS was filing a law suit against me. and to immediately call 202-747-2169. I was pretty sure this was not legit because I always heard the IRS WILL NOT CALL they will correspond by mail.
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: