Practical and Practice issues for Professionals who practice in the area of taxation. Moral, social and economic issues relating to taxes, including international issues, the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, state tax issues, etc. Not for "tax protestor" issues, which should be posted in the "tax protestor" forum above. The advice or opinion given herein should not be relied on for any purpose whatsoever. Also examines cookie-cutter deals that have no economic substance but exist only to generate losses, as marketed by everybody from solo practitioner tax lawyers to the major accounting firms.
Lambkin wrote:Looks like my most recent call from these turkeys was Sept 22, 2016.
"The reason of this call is to inform you that IRS is filing a lawsuit against you. We need you or your retained attorney of record to return the call the issue at hand is extremely time sensitive. Please call us immediately on 213-361-2408. I repeat 213-361-2408. Thank you."
I got that one this morning, but my call back number was 516-472-9052
I mostly posted this hoping google finds it and maybe warns someone off.
Supreme Commander of The Imperial Illuminati Air Force
Your concern is duly noted, filed, folded, stamped, sealed with wax and affixed with a thumbprint in red ink, forgotten, recalled, considered, reconsidered, appealed, denied and quietly ignored.
"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor."
- President Theodore Roosevelt
Same old con.
The phone number identified as the source may be entirely faked or the result of multiple relays (such as in Three Days of the Condor); if you were to call it back there would considerable delays, lots of click-clack, and possibly a wait of longer than a full minute before someone picks up (in India). Or the phone might be a cellphone rewired to sound and work with an answering machine like a regular phone.
We are unlikely to be taken, but we should warn others.
Police in India have arrested a man they say was the ringleader of a network of call centers that allegedly swindled thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars.
Sagar Thakkar, 24, was detained in Mumbai after arriving on a flight from Dubai on Saturday. "He was the mastermind of IRS scam call centers in the state of Maharashtra and one center in Ahmedabad," said Mukund Hatote, assistant commissioner of police in Thane, just north of Mumbai. Hatote said Thakkar stands accused of extortion, cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy as well as violating India's communications and tech laws. News of the scam broke last October when Indian police raided nine calls centers -- eight in Thane in Maharashtra -- and arrested more than 70 people on suspicion of posing as IRS agents to steal cash from U.S. citizens. Workers at bogus call centers used American accents to impersonate IRS agents. They told their victims that they owed back taxes and would risk arrest if they hung up or failed to pay up.
Thakkar -- also known as "Shaggy" -- was one of 61 defendants mentioned in a U.S. indictment unsealed last October. The bogus call center workers were accused of stealing from 15,000 people by using the IRS scam and other fraud schemes.
he just kept saying, "It wasn't me"
The Hardest Thing in the World to Understand is Income Taxes -Albert Einstein
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose - As sung by Janis Joplin (and others) Written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster.
American names, yes, and they all seem to share the same name. I had spoken to 5 or 6 Tim's on one occasion. Kept being dropped, and transferred to another Tim each time I called.
However, the other day, I finally got transferred from India to a Russian sounding man, who was to help me pay the IRS what I owed. After 30 seconds, he new I was wasting his time, so we talked for a bit about his scam. He did seem to indicate Bangladesh as to the call center location, but he was most definitely not there.
The Hardest Thing in the World to Understand is Income Taxes -Albert Einstein
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose - As sung by Janis Joplin (and others) Written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster.
Police in India have arrested a man they say was the ringleader of a network of call centers that allegedly swindled thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars.
Sagar Thakkar, 24, was detained in Mumbai after arriving on a flight from Dubai on Saturday. "He was the mastermind of IRS scam call centers in the state of Maharashtra and one center in Ahmedabad," said Mukund Hatote, assistant commissioner of police in Thane, just north of Mumbai. Hatote said Thakkar stands accused of extortion, cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy as well as violating India's communications and tech laws. [ . . . ] Thakkar -- also known as "Shaggy" -- was one of 61 defendants mentioned in a U.S. indictment unsealed last October.[ . . . ]
I just looked at the indictment again. Sagar Thakar is listed in a chart (on page 7) as a "Call Center Operator & Payment Processor."
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
NYGman wrote:Workers at bogus call centers used American accents to impersonate IRS agents.
My mind boggles at how an Indian national would sound like trying to use a New Jersey or Deep South accent.
Unfortunately, none of the voices on the few calls I have received came anywhere close to sounding authentic.
One of them featured a male voice with a very thick "India"-type accent. The message had been left on my answering machine at home. The guy had tried to fool me by using an "American sounding" name -- I believe it was "Greg Mason". But, with his thick India accent, it came out something like "Greeg Meeson".
Pretty funny, actually. It was not an Oscar-winning performance.
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
These guys frequently manage to use a DC area code caller ID (area code 202) - which, if you bother to call, takes for goddam ever to ring, rings a long time before it's answered - it's actually a series of relay numbers (as in Three Days of the Condor) that eventually rings in India. Used to be they'd have local crooks who'd pick up the cash at your house. Now they tell you to buy several hundreds of dollars in those gift cards (such as iTunes) and they'll call back in 6 hours and you tell them the serial numbers (so they can use the cards over the phone or internet to buy stuff for themselves).
I found it amusing to waste their time, on the theory that the time they spend on me they won't be hustling on some shnook. I'd ask where they were calling from (usual answer: Washington, DC) and then I'd ask what was the time there (they were usually wrong by several hours).
Important fact, the IRS itself doesn't arrest people. It brings civil, not criminal, cases (using US Dept of Justice lawyers) to collect money. So even if you had done something wrong with your taxes, the IRS wouldn't be threatening to put the clinkers on.
IRS special agents do have the authority to arrest folks (and they do make arrests). Section 7608(a) and (b). There is a whole chapter of the IRM on how to go about it: IRM 9.4.12. Just as with civil collection suits, the IRS recommends prosecution of criminal cases to the Department of Justice. In the case of someone impersonating an IRS employee, however, the investigation would be carried out by TIGTA rather than the IRS and then referred to DOJ.
What the IRS doesn't do is call people out of the blue.
It's been a long time since I got one of these calls. Yesterday (Thursday, April 5, 2018) when I got home after work, I found not one, not two, but three different (but essentially identical) recorded messages on my answering machine. Typical computer-generated woman's voice, demanding that I call such and such a phone number immediately. The usual idiocy: claiming not only that the Internal Revenue Service had filed court proceedings against me for criminal violations, but also that the local "sheriffs" were going to arrest me -- on behalf of the IRS.
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
Famspear wrote: ↑Fri Apr 06, 2018 3:32 pm
It's been a long time since I got one of these calls. Yesterday (Thursday, April 5, 2018) when I got home after work, I found not one, not two, but three different (but essentially identical) recorded messages on my answering machine. Typical computer-generated woman's voice, demanding that I call such and such a phone number immediately. The usual idiocy: claiming not only that the Internal Revenue Service had filed court proceedings against me for criminal violations, but also that the local "sheriffs" were going to arrest me -- on behalf of the IRS.
Exactly the type of call I get frequently in Vancouver. The CRA has found out about my criminal tax fraud activities and is going to have me tossed in jail unless I call a specified number right now. If I did I'd no doubt get instructions to send funds somewhere via Western Union.
"Yes Burnaby49, I do in fact believe all process servers are peace officers. I've good reason to believe so." Robert Menard in his May 28, 2015 video "Process Servers".
Get with the program, scammers haven't asked for funds transfer via Western Union for ages. For the past few years it has been itunes cards. Both of the above methods are sadly (for the scammers at least) traceable and local stores who sell itunes cards have been questioning little old ladies trying to buy five grand worth of them. The latest ploy is to ask for the cash in bitcoin from an ATM. Major Canadian banks moved quickly to circumvent this (and for other reasons as well) by removing the ability to buy bitcoin with their credit cards.
I got one of these calls last year. I'm in Australia and it was from the ATO (Australian Tax Office). The exception was that it was wasn't an Indian voice. but someone with a distinct Australian accent. It would appear they are getting more sophisticated with their targeting. The real ATO was quite interested with the recording of the voice message I received.
