Confirmed fraud attempt (Department of Treasury "Tax Collection Unit" script). 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) or as in this case Bandwidth.com) 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:
Middle Eastern accent, said name James Webb, said U.S. Treasury and seeking action against me. Called 5 times in less than one hour. Of course this is fraud, just wanted ot put them out there for people to recognize.
Received this call from 202-794-6001 on Sat 3/14 about 6pm EST and on Sun 3/15 at 8:58 pm. Both times the caller was a male with a very heavy Hindi type accent saying there is a pending lawsuit against me , he didn't call me by name but instructed to call back before the case is turned over to the Federal Majestrate- Help us help you. I am ill and was resting after taking meds and it was on the weekend no less! I have physical issues, economical issues, and now this! give me a break and leave me alone because this is making me more depressed!
I too received a call from this number. He Had a Middle Eastern accent also and he told me that I had to call him back immediately and that if I didn't I would be found guilty to federal felony offenses. If II called back, he could help me. It sounded very unprofessional soI looked up the number on the Internet and found this page. how do we stop these things?