Report the Calls to the real IRS here:
•report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
•You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov. Add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments in your complaint.
******
Do consider maybe getting a call blocking device or phone.. You can google them and many are around $50.00 or so.If its a cell phone, some already have call blocking, if not, there are free apps on the web that will work for some. You can google this. If you have a smart phone, there is a free app called call control. Iphones appear to have apps also. Another one is called Mr. Number.
Message left from a Tom Cooper who had a thick non-english accent. Claimed to be from Department of Legal Affairs of US Treasury. Claimed legal action is being taken against me. Told me I should retain a lawyer before I call back - but then urged I call back myself as soon as possible. Ended with "God Bless."
Suspecting this not right, especially with the threat of legal action, looked online and sure enough, others reported this as a scam.
Folks that called back said they were told there was an issue with their 2009 taxes. A news report claims they collected over $1M so far.
I have had actual issues with back taxes. Calc errors, omissions, etc. My experience is what the US Treasury does is sends you in the mail a letter describing the issue, and timeline to fix it. They also provide sheets showing the errors and corrections and ask you to either provide data explaining or to reply back that you accept their calcs and pay the differences. Sometimes it is a check back for overpaying, again with sheets showing where the errors were made. Regardless, this type of thing is managed through the mail, and with the calc errors detailed. They even assign an contact officer if there are questions from me about my case.
As much as we tend not to like to pay taxes or the Tax Man, there is a real process and real people behind it and they are there to help you through it. Nowhere in an actual experience are you told legal action is being taken, no threats made. Its a given that you need to have your taxes right, no need to mention or threaten legal action.
Given how few folks have actual land-lines anymore, why would anyone use that route to contact, especially for official business? If something is really serious, they will knock on your door. Less urgent offical matters use mail. Anything else is suspicious.
An apparent scam call from "Tom Cooper" from the Department of the Treasury. Heavily accented English, with a lot of background noise/talking, so the call appears to originate from some foreign call center. Caller ID shows "California," and "Mr. Cooper" called three times and left two messages (first one wasn't done well enough apparently) going on about moving forward with legal proceedings or something along those lines. Very difficult to understand him, but I seriously doubt real government agencies would be calling you up out of the blue leaving oddball messages on your phone or answering machine.
Received a cal from the above number. Caller ID 'd himself as Tom Cooper , Department of Legal Affars of the US Tresury. Stated some form of legal action was going to be taken, but would not tell me why. Figured it was a scam, but still wanted to report it.
Rec'd a voice mail message from "Chris Wilcox" -heavy accent - Calling from "Dept. of Legal Affairs" - said that I shouldreturn the call, with my attorney, as if I don't take care of this action that has been started against me that "it will be a big mess for you". Also ended with have a Blessed Day. Needless to say, I don't intend to call them back.
Report the Calls to the real IRS here:
•report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
•You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov. Add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments in your complaint.
******
Do consider maybe getting a call blocking device or phone.. You can google them and many are around $60.00 or so.