Reading these responses has me concerned. I received a letter from the IRS office in Fresno yesterday giving me a status update of their review of an amended income tax return that I filed earlier this year. Today I got a call on my cell phone from this number, which did not give any Caller ID, so I did not answer and they did not leave a message. I didn't give it much further thought until looking up the number here and saw that they were claiming to be from the IRS. I am concerned because there was no Caller ID, and they did not leave a message. Oh, and in response to a previous poster, several weeks ago when I called IRS at their 800 number and finally got a representative on the line, she did identify herself with an "ID#", not a "Badge #".
Number belongs to a call center for the IRS, specifically a support line for tax related questions or help. It is not a collection arm of the IRS, typically they are returning calls that were disconnected or calling someone back with information.
I got a strange call from this number. My accountant did as well about me. She asked to confirm my SSN and Birthday. She knew too much. She knew my wife's name and 19 yo daughter. She also knew that we wrote a letter concerning our 2012, and 2013 taxes. My accountant swears that this is a fake number yet she knew so much info.
I think it is real. I hope it is real. I hung up on her by accident. She called back but I was on the phone with my account. He stressed to me not to answer it is a fraud. I do not think it is.
There is a widespread IRS or "tax scam" being practiced by scammers on both Canadian and USA residents.
USA tax payers should read this:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Reiterate ... -Telephone-Scam
Short answer:
The IRS never initiates a contact via phone.
They always send a snailmail first.
Educational post:
This scam is also described as scam #11, here:
http://phonehelp.2truth.com/facts_rev.html
If you were contacted by an IRS impostor, you may file a report, after clicking on this link:
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml