First fraudulent call of the the year....

[Duke2Earl]

I got my first fraudulent IRS call of the year. The call assured me that the IRS was going to file suit against me if I didn't call them immediately and pay up. They gave a DC phone number 202-640-0414. I called it. From the accent of the person who answered on the about 20th ring I think the DC number only forwards the call to somewhere out of the country. I told them that they need to know that the cops were on the way. They hung up real quick. And yes I did report it to the IRS.

[notorial dissent]

No fair. All I ever get are badly formatted and worded emails that don't even fool my spam filter, and otherwise, the hotmail address gives them away.

[AndyK]

Called them three times, introducing myself as a representative of IRS CI.

On the fourth call, no one answered.

[Duke2Earl]

We didn't scare them enough to try another scam.... this morning's call, which was identical to yesterday's call came at 10AM. We did scare them enough to change the phone number....the new number given on today's call is 202 446 7202....which caller ID identified as a cell number.

[Arthur Rubin]

I suppose IRS collections might call from a cell number.

Provided they are already there.....

[Famspear]

In an IRS collections matter, the IRS would generally have already sent several written notices to the taxpayer. Unless the taxpayer had moved and the IRS did not have a current address (so that the taxpayer never received the notices), it's somewhat unlikely that a taxpayer would just receive a call "out of the blue" in the way that the scammers have set up their schemes.

An IRS Revenue Officer (collections officer) might try to make his or her first contact in person -- but again, a Revenue Officer generally would get involved in the process only after several written notices would have already been mailed to the taxpayer (e.g., from the ACS unit at the IRS).

In any case, the Internal Revenue Service does not call people on the phone and threaten to sue to collect taxes.

And, the IRS definitely does not call people on the phone and threaten criminal prosecution in the way that the scammers are trying to do.

Most people simply do not know any of this. So, sadly, the average person is somewhat susceptible to these scams.

[Duke2Earl]

Third call in 3 days...they are really after me. Same thing.... it's my "final warning" before they file suit against me....call immediately....same number as the first call this time. I have filed complaints at TIGTA.

[operabuff]

Here's an article from the WP today about this scam:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

Here's the TIGTA website for reporting the scam.

https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_ ... scam.shtml


I haven't heard from this caller in several years. I found it sort of amusing to get his calls while I was sitting in my office in the IRS building. He is very aggressive and abusive. I was fairly nasty in response. Eventually he stopped calling.

[Famspear]

......I found it sort of amusing to get his calls while I was sitting in my office in the IRS building. He is very aggressive and abusive. I was fairly nasty in response. Eventually he stopped calling.

I would have loved to have been in your shoes when you received the call. I would want to have said something like:

Ah, yes, I'm glad you called. I figured you'd find me eventually. You see, I'm an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service, and I'm sitting here in my IRS office right now. I'm aware that you guys down the hall here in the IRS building have been after me for some time because of my past due taxes. It's just that you guys have been scouring the country looking for me everywhere from Portland to Peoria to Poughkeepsie, not thinking to look to see that I'm right here down the hall from you.

But, I see that you've found me at last. I will of course pay you all the taxes I owe. But first, you must understand that I do charge a service fee. Now, if you'll just give me your name, address, social security number and bank account number, I'll be glad to withdraw a one thousand dollar, nonrefundable Taxpayer Service Fee from your personal account, as allowed pursuant to Internal Revenue Code section 9999, of which I'm sure you're aware.......

[NYGman]

I wonder if I could offer them a fake WeRe check to satisfy my Fake IRS Debt?

[Gregg]

Just a note, a call from a collections department of the IRS is liable to come from the 606 or 513 area codes, as their collection center is in Covington Kentucky (the city that makes Cincinnati's airport code CVG) and they have some offices in CIncinnati on the right side of the river.

[Arthur Rubin]

My fraudulent calls had caller ID in DC with callback number in VA. It was a while ago, though. Perhaps the scammers have moved.

[The Observer]

Just a note, a call from a collections department of the IRS is liable to come from the 606 or 513 area codes, as their collection center is in Covington Kentucky (the city that makes Cincinnati's airport code CVG) and they have some offices in CIncinnati on the right side of the river.

It can come from other areas as well; the IRS has a number of call sites located throughout the US.

[Famspear]

What is sad is that some people have lost large amounts of money falling for the scams.

One would think that merely checking with an office that the potential victim KNOWS is a real IRS office BEFORE giving any money to anyone claiming to be from the IRS would be the first thing the victim should think of doing. Yet, I've heard of cases where the victim made multiple payments to the scammer over an extended period of time.

[Dr. Caligari]

It's not just fake IRS calls. My wife got a call last week from someone claiming to be from our cable TV carrier; the caller said our last two checks had been unsigned and they would disconnect our cable unless my wife gave them a credit card number.

[morrand]

Just a note, a call from a collections department of the IRS is liable to come from the 606 or 513 area codes, as their collection center is in Covington Kentucky (the city that makes Cincinnati's airport code CVG) and they have some offices in CIncinnati on the right side of the river.

It can come from other areas as well; the IRS has a number of call sites located throughout the US.

It does not really matter. Given the right equipment, caller ID can be reset to whatever number you want it to show (even, say, (202) 456-1111, which would actually be a funny one for them to use) regardless of where the call originates. Telemarketers were, of course, notorious for that until their market finally dried up. The billing ID (the one you can't see that the phone companies use for charging purposes) is harder to spoof, but probably not invulnerable. And of course, it's totally feasible to port a number from the 202 or 606 area, or anywhere else, so the callback numbers aren't much help either, especially if the scammer is taking the simple route of buying a bunch of prepaid SIM cards out of those areas.

[Burnaby49]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... story.html

[NYGman]

Joy of joys. Finally got my call and what fun.after I was told about the outstanding warrant out for my arrest for being behind in my tax, I went full Sov Cit on them.

I told them I was a sovereign and not a citizen of the United States Corporation and taxes didn't apply to me as I didn't live in D.C. or work for the government so I didn't owe taxes.

The guy couldn't grasp it and just gave up, but what a fun conversion. I will be calling back tomorrow for round 2, unless I can get them bank again tonight. They just seem to hang up on me now, how odd. Wonder why?

Edit: this time they said, in that case we will remove your number and not call again.

So I have finally figured out a great use for sovcit gibberish.

[The Observer]

So I have finally figured out a great use for sovcit gibberish.

Unless, of course, that really was the IRS calling...

[NYGman]

So I have finally figured out a great use for sovcit gibberish.

Unless, of course, that really was the IRS calling...

So true... That did run through my mind, but as we all know, the IRS does not cold call people with the news that an arrest warrant has been issued, and they have to pay up right now. I also doubt the IRS has outsourced this type of thing to India, although they may save a bit of cash in doing so, public outcry would put a stop to it fast. Besides, I doubt the IRS would allow those outside the US unfettered access to their data. Finally, the proof is the "IRS Agent" accepted my status as Sovereign and even agreed to send me a letter confirming I owe no tax (Since 1998 - As they asked how long I have been not filing returns). That, and the real IRS knows the truth of my returns, and I also know I am in compliance.

Still fun times, Just have to wait for my Wife to get one of these calls, so I can do it again. Last year they called her Mobile phone a few times.