I got a recorded phone call from 210-301-0307, someone claiming to be Officer Julie Smith of the IRS, urgently telling me that I or my legal representative needs to "call back immediately, do not ignore this call" and call her back at 206-495-9309. Two hours later I got a call from the same number, this time a recorded call from a male telling me that a lawsuit has been filed against me and that he needs to speak to me before the lawsuit is filed at the County Courthouse in my area, and please call back right away to 206-414-6036. Both recordings were in American English.
Mechanical message, "Internal Revenue Service ..and...the hotline to my position is 206 495-9309....Don't disregard this message, and do return this call before we take any action against you. Goodbye and take care."
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:
You are a lying sack of pus! Get lost!
Foreign scammers have got to some of the most illiterate & ignorant beings on the planet. Who do you frauds think you're ever going to fool?
Skeff Ett Liv!
Gunnar