Received a call at 7:38a from Indian man stating he was from the IRS and that this was a time sensitive call. Told me not to ignore this call or else. Then he wished me good luck and a blessed day. I have worked with the IRS, have friends who are IRS agents, NO one in this agency would wish you a blessed day if the call was as bad as he made out to be. It is a scam as far as I am concerned!! Will be blocking the number in just a minute.
An IRS officer with weird accent called, claiming tax fraud and time sensitive matter. In the background was Muslim prayer call. Don't make no sense. This has to be a scam by an Islamic gang. Pakistan? India? Arab states? Muslim terrorists?
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. 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:
Got the call many times today., claiming to be Alex Watson (as best as I could understand the accent) from IRS Hq, and That I have a criminal lawsuit against me and tomorrow I will be arrested. Asked for more info, and he just kept reiterating how I will be arrested for 3 years. Told him I already have a payment plan set up, and he responded that "in the email last week, explains why it was rejected" Asked why I wasn't contacted by mail or phone til now, and they were 'just too busy' . Not his concern. Sit back and wait. Very threatening.