They called me last night, threatening legal actions. My response was they are scammers & I know their scam, please lose my number. And I hung up. 30 seconds later the same guy called back. Asked why I hung up. Told him I was reporting him to law enforcement locally. His response was legal action has been filed & to enjoy jail! Gutsy little fellow!!
This message is intended to contact .... Hi, this is John Darcy with the Department of Legal Affairs at the U.S. Treasury, and I was trying to reach you in regards to a very important issue. The number to reach me is 408-543-9125. If for any reason you are busy to call back, I would suggest you to have your retain attorney to do it for you, as delay in calling us might end up into a legal mess for you. Until then, have a blessed day and God bless.”
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.
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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.
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:
This message is intended for (Your name here) Hi this is Diana Foster with the Department of Legal Affairs while I was trying to reach you about a very important issue. This is a verbal notification for you in regard to some law enforcement action started against DLA. My call back number is 408-543-9125 If for any reason you are busy to call back, I would strongly suggest you to have your retain attorney to do it for you, as delay in calling us might end up into a legal mess for you. I hope you will take this right and give me a call back as soon as possible. This is Diana Foster with the Department of Legal Affairs. Looking forward to speaking with you until then you have a good day and good bye.