When I pointed out the incongruities in his statement, he because agitated. Based on my estimation of the accent, I asked him if he was calling from a call center in India. He eventually claimed that he was Mexican and was calling from Brooklyn and then said something in Mexican-accented Spanish. I still think that he is Indian. Eventually during the course of the banter, he said to me "[***] you" and hung up. Yes indeed, I will report this as well.....
My mother just called me that she had received a voice message from Officer David Cooper from IRS. Apparently, he was involved in some "very urgent" investigation and my mom had to call back right away to avoid "dire consequences." Needless to say, this call smelled fishier than Boston Harbor.
Just got a call from a David Cooper who left this call-back number. He left a message on my voice mail stating he was "from tax crime investigations with the IRS" that it was urgent that my attorney or I call him back and then wished me luck. I owe nothing but I was still worried, so I did a quick Internet search and found this site.
Caller had a heavy accent. It could have been Indian or Mid-Eastern. There was a lot of background noise.
My thanks to all the other posters for sharing & helping me achieve some serenity regarding this instance.
I just got a message from this David Cooper fellow too ). I am clean on my taxes and the way his message was treatening I knew it was not an investigator or IRS officer. It sounded like a scam but in case it was really some crazy IRS man with some wrong information, I googled the phone number. I will be ready if he calls back. I had the same type of call as all of the other people are mentioning. He even said, if I want to 'save myself' i will call back right away... that part was funny! But, I really hope no one is falling for this!!
This is some coward hiding behind a magicJack device plugged in at some God-forsaken corner of the world where there is Internet service. He's no better than a common criminal using a magicJack device and your fear the same way a common thief uses a toy pistol hidden in the pocket of his overcoat to make a bulge that looks like a real gun.
You can verify that this is a magicJack number by searching for it at http://www.phonevalidator.com .
This scam has been extensively researched at
http://www.pindropsecurity.com/consumer-fraud ... irs-phone-scam/ and it was found that magicJack numbers are frequently used, and many of the scammers are operating out of India. There is even an audio recording of a call returned to one of these numbers and a written transcript of the recording contained in links from the Pindrop Security blog.
MagicJacks are readily obtainable outside of the United States for about $100 US and can come with up to a year of free calling to the U.S. and Canada. In India, see, for example,
http://magicjack.in .
So it doesn't take long to turn a profit, even if only 0.1% of the people they call are stupid enough to believe the scammers.
In addition to the regular reporting channels, e.g., the Department of the Treasury, the FTC, and/or your local state attorney general's office, you might also report the abuse to YMAX Corp. This is a fully-owned subsidiary of the company that sells magicJacks. YMAX Corp. is in charge of assigning telephone numbers to magicJack devices. I have seen reports that they are pretty good at responding to complaints and may be able to permanently shut off a magicJack device, if necessary, so that it can never be used again.
The YMAX Corp. main web page is at:
http://www.ymaxcorp.com
and their site giving information on how to lodge a complaint is at:
http://www.ymaxcorp.com/contact.html
Note that the "contact" website gives a clickable link to a "live chat" where you can make your complaint.
I received a message yesterday from David cooper who said he was from the IRS. He said I had to call back or my attorney. Urgent! I owed back taxes. Very threatening. He knew my name. Scary.