We reveiced this call via a Voicemail today. They left a message saying they were the "Legal Affairs of the Department of U.S. Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service." Stated that we had a fraud on our taxes and needed to call them back. We knew right away it was a scam. I called anyway to get more info. I introduced myself as an investigator. The man on the other end had either an Indian or a Pakistani accent. He kept pretending to be with the IRS, and asked me to meet him at the IRS building, and gave me a badge number, then hung up.
IRS Telephone Scam: Woman with a possibly Indian accent left a message on our home machine stating that she was calling from the "Legal Affairs of the Department of U.S. Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service." She said they have a legal affidavit concerning tax fraud on our name, and we needed to call 202-760-2470 as soon as possible or face legal consequences. I assume they will want money from us. I ignored them.
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://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 just got a call from the same number (202-760-2470 ex. #6107):
Lisa Jackson (reading from a script claiming to be from the IRS) stated that I owed $ from 2008-2012. I asked for her extension and told her I would call back. Obviously this is some kind of scam...I was told the IRS would never initiate a case against anyone via phone call, it is always done by mail.
I just got a call from the same number (202-760-2470 ex. #6107):
Lisa Jackson (reading from a script claiming to be from the IRS and very hard to understand) stated that I owed $ from 2008-2012. I asked for her extension and told her I would call back. Obviously this is some kind of scam...I was told the IRS would never initiate a case against anyone via phone call, it is always done by mail.