they called me three times today with a threatening message. saif they were from the IRS. Accused me of seven years of unpaid taxes criminal penalties...threatened 2 years prison and arge criminal penalties. please IRS do something about this
I received a call from 415-506-1282 stayting that they are Julie Smith from the IRS and that I need to call the number back right away to avoid serious Repercussions . When calling back I spoke to a John Smith who told me that the IRS found discrepancies on my tax returns for the past 7 years totaling upwards to $6000 and that there is a warrant for my arrest. I was told that unless I call his supervisor Kenneth Webster at 415-251-9049, the police will come pick me up in 2 hours. I was given a case number and was also told that my property will be seized, bank accounts frozen and that it is urgent for me to call the number I was given. Once I realized that this was a fraudulent call, I imediately reported it to the General Attorney's office who advised me to screen my calls and not answer anymore, to call US Dept of Treasury and to also spread the word. Thank you!
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:
I received three messages today while I was at work from Officer Julie Smith, saying the same thing. the voice sounded computer generated. Thank goodness we can Google someone's name an come up with a website like this one and see that other people are experiencing the same thing!
I've got 2 phone calls from this number yesterday. When I called back they asked for my case number & when I said I don't have it. They put me on hold for awhile then hang up on me.