First fraudulent call of the the year....

[Famspear]

Although some of the scammers may be operating outside the United States, I'm thinking that at least some of them are inside the U.S.

I would give a week's compensation just to be there to observe when one of the scammers gets a surprise, not-so-friendly, visit from Federal law enforcement officers with badges and firearms, and is placed under arrest, handcuffed, given his or her Miranda warning, and is taken away.

Here's a reminder -- for any scammer who happens upon this thread:

Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

--18 USC section 912.

These crimes are investigated by the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

[Famspear]

My wife says we got another phony "IRS" scam call yesterday (Wednesday) on our land line phone answering machine at home.

She didn't even bother to save the recording for me.

[fortinbras]

Got this same call today, 18 Feb 2016, in Delaware. Caller ID said it was a cellphone but the call sounded like a robot caller. Did not address me by name or indicate that it knew or cared who answered the phone. Used the number 202-352-6228, which is identified as a cellphone number. I tried calling back - no answer. I will report this to the IRS.

[The Observer]

I have gotten 3 calls on my answering machine; two of the callback numbers were 253-214-3854 and 817-349-3094. The third number had static on the message, so it does seem to indicate that the callers are using cell phones. And no doubt that the phone numbers are spoofed to avoid tracing.

[Judge Roy Bean]

I have gotten 3 calls ... no doubt that the phone numbers are spoofed to avoid tracing.

You can assume they are. Caller ID has effectively been rendered useless. Unless and until the regulators pull their head out of their collective you-know-whats the industries and scammers that need to hide will continue to take advantage of the situation.

[The Observer]

Spoke to an LEO who is familiar with the investigation on these calls. He indicated that a majority of the calls are originating out of India.

[Burnaby49]

This isn't as warm and personal as an actual phone call but I just got this email;

IΝΤЕRΑС e-trаnѕfer from cаnаda rеνenue аցеnсу sуѕtem 58150626

Dear Burnaby49

Canada Revenue Agency has sent you refund an INTERAC e-Transfer (previously INTERAC Email Money Transfer).

Amount:$720.99 (CAD)
Sender’s Message: A message was not provided
Expiry Date: 08/08/2015

Action Required:
To deposit your money, click here:
(link to scammers or a virus)
2015 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Online Support27

Damn, my refund expired before I could get it. Just my luck.

[eric]

This isn't as warm and personal as an actual phone call but I just got this email;

IΝΤЕRΑС e-trаnѕfer from cаnаda rеνenue аցеnсу sуѕtem 58150626
Dear Burnaby49
Canada Revenue Agency has sent you refund an INTERAC e-Transfer (previously INTERAC Email Money Transfer).

Damn, my refund expired before I could get it. Just my luck.

Probably the link has expired by now since the RCMP and the CRA are very speedy at removing these type of scams. It might be fun to play with them for awhile though. I must admit I keep one computer that I use for accessing the web using Tor to hide my IP and have some interesting apps to create fake caller id's that I use for talking to scammers.

[Famspear]

On Monday, April 18, 2016, I received another phony IRS call on my land line at home. Sounded like the same people as last year: a computerized voice, referring to "Internal Revenue Services." The message was changed, though; now the scammers claimed that the IRS had already "filed a lawsuit" against me.

For the bad guys who get caught, I propose that we bring back public flogging and locking them in stocks in the public square.

[Dr. Caligari]

For the bad guys who get caught, I propose that we bring back public flogging and locking them in stocks in the public square.

I vote for throwing them into the pit under the outhouse near the Yellowstone National Park Visitors Center just before Memorial Day weekend.

[LaVidaRoja]

Making them dance naked down the local Main Street while carrying a sign saying "I am a fool" might just start a trend

[Famspear]

A friend of mine received this one today on his home phone:

This message is intended to contact you. My name is James Caston and I'm calling in [garbled] action. Executed by the US treasury intending your serious attention. Ignoring this will be an intentional attempt to avoid initial appearance before a magistrate judge or a [garbled] for a federal criminal offense. My number is 936-679-7059. I repeat 936679759. I'd wife [garbled, probably should read “I’d like”] you to cooperate with us and help us to help you. Thank you.

(The message was converted from voice to text by his Vonage phone service.)

[Judge Roy Bean]

At least they're trying to put a dent in it:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/201 ... /84874934/

Five suspects have been arrested for involvement in a growing IRS impersonation scam that has bilked an estimated $36.5 million from 6,400 victims nationwide, federal officials said Tuesday. ... Since mid-April, some scammers have instructed victims to pay purported IRS tax debts with Apple iTunes cards, TIGTA said.

[Burnaby49]

From today's Wall Street Journal;

Indian Police Bust IRS ‘Scam Center’

Police say scammers posing as IRS officials would dial people in the U.S. and threaten them with jail time if they didn’t pay up

THANE, India—Police said three nondescript office buildings on the edge of this booming Mumbai suburb were packed with hundreds of people posing as Internal Revenue Service officials in a scam that has vexed Americans for years.

Authorities arrested 70 people Wednesday alleging they helped manage nine call-centers where around 700 people made thousands of calls a day to try to trick Americans into sending them money.


Police said the call center workers had one job: dial people in the U.S., accuse them of failing to pay their taxes and threaten them with jail time if they didn’t pay up immediately. Police didn’t give an estimate on how much money the operation netted, but the ability to employ hundreds of English-speaking people suggests it had significant revenue.

. . . . .

U.S. authorities have struggled to combat an epidemic of swindlers targeting taxpayers. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an IRS watchdog, said it has received more than 1.7 million complaints in the last three years from people reporting phone calls from swindlers impersonating IRS agents. More than 8,800 victims have paid more than $47 million as a result of these scams, it added.

Representatives of the IRS and the Tigta watchdog declined to comment on the raid.

Last year a man named Sahil Patel was sentenced to 14 years in prison in New York for running the U.S. side of a huge IRS fraud that used call centers in India.

That scam squeezed about $1.2 million from hundreds of victims in the U.S. by impersonating law-enforcement officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS, and claiming people owed money for bogus financial crimes. The scammers made thousands of calls and used technology to hide where they were calling from and where victims’ payments were being sent.

[Famspear]

I gotten at least five of these calls over the past year and a half or so -- the most recent one on September 23. They are almost comical. The latest one was a male speaking English with an accent that sounds like he is from somewhere in India, identifying himself as "Keith Jordan" or some such name (as if to fool someone into thinking that he is American). Yet, people are being scammed by these calls. It's sad.

[fortinbras]

At one point, several years ago, these con-artists stumbled on the teletype devices used by the deaf (TTYs or TDDs) to communicate over telephone lines and were making TTY calls to deaf people, saying they were IRS and demanding money, etc. and managed to scoop up considerable money. This was, as far as I could tell, done mostly in the DC area and possibly a few other big cities where the Deaf community had managed to publish local directories of TTY numbers.

This con doesn't work so well now because many deaf have ceased using telephone lines altogether in favor of internet camera calls using the Sign Language.

[Burnaby49]

A follow-up from the WSJ;

THANE, India— Minaz Husain Ladaf couldn’t believe his luck this summer when he was offered a 40% bump in salary and other perks to work for what he thought was the U.S. government. But when he went to his new workplace to pick up his paycheck this week, he was picked up by the police instead.

Mr. Ladaf and dozens of fellow call-center workers have been locked in dusty jail cells in this booming Mumbai suburb since Wednesday. Police say they managed a telephone “scam center” where close to 700 workers called targeted Americans, pretending to be from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and raking in an estimated $150,000 a day.

. . . .

But the job could be tough, Mr. Ladaf said, as 99% of the people they called weren’t fooled by the scam. “It was extremely frustrating,” he said. “We took abuse for hours on end.”

Poor babies. You Americans are just too hard on people trying to cheat you.

[notorial dissent]

Just wait til they start hitting them with US tax rates for what they have been making. Then they'll get the full flavor of their impersonation.

[The Observer]

Poor babies. You Americans are just too hard on people trying to cheat you.

Please, you are just upset that you had to take abuse for years and never got a 1.5 cent bonus for every dollar you assessed.