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Beware of this scam...

Ohh I relish the opportunity when those calls come.
Its like cents on the hour entertainment.
Turn the foreign accent and on high, and feign naiveness and then just mess with the ****er on the end of the line till they give up
 
rabbitcaebannog said:
IRS scam ringing San Antonio phones

I live in MA and just had this happen. The scammers left an automated message on my answering machine and said to return the call ASAP or face legal measures. My husband returned the call and was told that we owed back taxes which he ignored to pay and will face legal consequences. My husband said this is the first he heard of this and if it was true, why such extreme threats? He told them he never received anything via mail. They got more aggressive and threaten to send the police to arrest him if he did not take them serious. The moment the guy said this, he knew it was a scam. He reported it to the IRS and they said they were aware of the scam. They apparently also ask you to make payments with them using prepaid cards.
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In Wisconsin, we get news from Illinois and Wisconsin television, only Illinois television stations told people about these IRS scams. I'm surprised this isn't covered by national news, the kinda news that many people watch. Illinois stations warned people many weeks ago, I'm surprised this is still going on, why hasn't this stuff been shut down yet?
 
rabbitcaebannog said:
That would be totally my fault. The automated thing threw me for a loop. I wanted to let people know so they wouldn't have to go through such undue stress.
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But you know what deary? Me & my better 1/2 have gotten into the habit of NOT answering the phone (thanks to caller ID) when we don't recognize the number.

If someone or robo-caller leaves messages, we largely ignore them if we don't know who the caller is.

Like someone else said in the thread, the IRS won't call you, nor will any other government agency, they will likely contact you through the mail or in person. Just be careful.
 
It is not new and has been used in reference to parking fines and so forth.

First, do not engage them, tell them nothing, and simply inform them that under the law you have no legal obligation to speak to them over the phone. Second, nicely state that with so much fraud and identity theft around you need to verify who they are, so ask for the name of the agency, the individuals name and where they are located. Tell them, you will be pleased to meet with them in person as soon as they have supplied the legal paperwork establishing the debt as per indebtedness and collections legislation which is pretty universal in most jurisdictions, after your legal team has had sufficient time to examine the documents.

If they threaten to call the police kindly inform them you are a police officer and have your supervisor on cell.
 
JumpinJack said:
I got two of these calls in TX in April. It was an alarming message. But I was tipped off by:

The IRS wouldn't CALL. They'd send an official notice in writing.

The ph # he left wasn't toll free.

He said he was with the IRS criminal division. Criminal division? The IRS doesn't have a criminal division. They'd investigate or audit me first. Then if I were going to be prosecute, it would be the DOJ or some criminal agency that would prosecute me, I thought.

The message said I owed some money. The IRS wouldn't call to tell me I owed $. They'd investigate or audit me, and send me a written notice. Everything would be in writing, in order for it to be legal, so they could prove they notified me.

Finally...the piece de'resistance: I had been honest on my return. So I knew there was no big problem.

I realized it was a scam being done right after tax season.

When I didn't call the phone number, would you believe they made a SECOND call to me???? Pretty ballsy.

I called the IRS. I'm surprised your hubby was able to talk with someone. What I got was an automated message to leave a message about possible scams or something. I left a message telling them about the calls.

The IRS should run public service announcements about this sort of thing. But it might be mentioned on the IRS website.
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I like the messages left for trips to Barbados or the Bahamas. LOL.
 
When I get a call at my business that I suspect is a solicitor call I interupt them and ask for a credit card number. They will usually stumble on that, and I explain that I charge for consultation time. My time is valuable too.
 
tech30528 said:
When I get a call at my business that I suspect is a solicitor call I interupt them and ask for a credit card number. They will usually stumble on that, and I explain that I charge for consultation time. My time is valuable too.
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Lol, good one I may have to borrow.
 
Winchester said:
I had a client who received a very similar call 2-3 weeks ago. She was pretty sure it was a scam, but it still worried her even though she owed no back taxes and has always filed/payed her taxes on time. I told her if it happens again ask for a last name, IRS badge number and a callback number, that and the IRS never just calls you. Problem is there are a lot of ignorant people out there and some of them do owe back taxes and may fall for it.
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It isn't true that the IRS never just calls you. The last question I had on my taxes I learned about via a call from the IRS. The lady advised that we were missing reporting some income on our taxes. I checked and she was right--my H&R Block software had failed to include a couple of large 1099's. I explained what had happened and she said she would fix that on their end, but it would reduce--actually it pretty well wiped out--the refund we were expecting. I told her I understood and thanked her and incident was ended. (She further said it was not the first time H&R Block software had created problems for folks. I told her it was the first year I had tried that software and would be returning to TurboTax and she said they had had problems with that too. Moral of story, double check your tax return if you prepare them yourself using that kind of software.)

But yeah, I think most would not fall for such a scam as is reported here and we too have received those calls. They must be working with somebody though or the scammers wouldn't keep it up. And that isn't the only scam of that type going around.
 
rabbitcaebannog said:
IRS scam ringing San Antonio phones

I live in MA and just had this happen. The scammers left an automated message on my answering machine and said to return the call ASAP or face legal measures. My husband returned the call and was told that we owed back taxes which he ignored to pay and will face legal consequences. My husband said this is the first he heard of this and if it was true, why such extreme threats? He told them he never received anything via mail. They got more aggressive and threaten to send the police to arrest him if he did not take them serious. The moment the guy said this, he knew it was a scam. He reported it to the IRS and they said they were aware of the scam. They apparently also ask you to make payments with them using prepaid cards.
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OMG rabbit, I live in NH and had it happen last week as well! I knew it was a scam because we don't owe money, but I was shaken nonetheless. The voice mail message was also hard to understand, the woman had a thick accent and an unrecognizable name.

What is with these people?
 
AlbqOwl said:
It isn't true that the IRS never just calls you. The last question I had on my taxes I learned about via a call from the IRS. The lady advised that we were missing reporting some income on our taxes. I checked and she was right--my H&R Block software had failed to include a couple of large 1099's. I explained what had happened and she said she would fix that on their end, but it would reduce--actually it pretty well wiped out--the refund we were expecting. I told her I understood and thanked her and incident was ended. (She further said it was not the first time H&R Block software had created problems for folks. I told her it was the first year I had tried that software and would be returning to TurboTax and she said they had had problems with that too. Moral of story, double check your tax return if you prepare them yourself using that kind of software.)

But yeah, I think most would not fall for such a scam as is reported here and we too have received those calls. They must be working with somebody though or the scammers wouldn't keep it up. And that isn't the only scam of that type going around.
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Very interesting. I have never ever heard of the IRS just calling someone, let alone know you are missing data on submission. Normal procedure is taxpayer files return, misses stuff. IRS runs a matching program later on and finds said missing documents and proposes a tax increase on a computer generated CP2000 along with the options to agree/pay, partially agree, or disagree. If one fails to respond to said CP2000 within a certain time frame they will go ahead and do a final assessment and bill you. Keep in mind I've dealt with 10,000+ individual income tax returns over the last 25+ years and not once have had a client contacted via phone by the IRS prior to the receipt of official correspondence.

Must have been a huge problem with the software you were using for them to get proactive on the problem.
 
tres borrachos said:
OMG rabbit, I live in NH and had it happen last week as well! I knew it was a scam because we don't owe money, but I was shaken nonetheless. The voice mail message was also hard to understand, the woman had a thick accent and an unrecognizable name.

What is with these people?
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They think the scam may be based out in India.
 
tres borrachos said:
That would explain her accent and the name which I couldn't even understand.

These people need to find a hobby. Or I should say, a better hobby.
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I agree. I'm thinking they had the equipment to make these automated messages from call centers.
 
Winchester said:
Very interesting. I have never ever heard of the IRS just calling someone, let alone know you are missing data on submission. Normal procedure is taxpayer files return, misses stuff. IRS runs a matching program later on and finds said missing documents and proposes a tax increase on a computer generated CP2000 along with the options to agree/pay, partially agree, or disagree. If one fails to respond to said CP2000 within a certain time frame they will go ahead and do a final assessment and bill you. Keep in mind I've dealt with 10,000+ individual income tax returns over the last 25+ years and not once have had a client contacted via phone by the IRS prior to the receipt of official correspondence.

Must have been a huge problem with the software you were using for them to get proactive on the problem.
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Well I don't know as I have had little experience with dealing with the IRS over the decades. We had had two partial audits in the past--one to do with me claiming my mother's airline ticket and expenses as a child care deduction when I was in a bind and needed her to come. The IRS said we couldn't do that. :) but they dropped it when I offered some other allowable deductions I could have taken and they called it a wash. And the other had to do with an antique bedroom set we donated to a museum and took as a charitable tax deduction. After we supplied the appraisal to the IRS they did allow that one. In both cases we did receive a letter from the IRS with the telephone number to call but both issues were handled successfully by telephone and mail. But this time it was all handled by telephone and I did not feel the least bit intimidated or threatened or that I was being harassed or mistreated in any way. I did make the mistake on our taxes and appreciated very much how it was handled. (I did subsequently receive a letter from the IRS informing me that the correction had been made.)

I can't imagine not being very suspicious, however, should I receive an abusive and threatening call from anybody claiming to be from the government or other authority.
 
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The scams must work at least once in a while, or the scammers would try something else (no, not honest work, another scam) It only has to work once in a great while to pay, as robocalls are cheap and emails are free.

Say, did you know I won the lottery in Ghana? I didn't even know I'd entered. Just a couple more payments, and the millions will start rolling in.

OH, and be sure to update your information for your email account before they cut you off.
 
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