Follow up on IRS Scam Call

Now a call came in from Federal Magistrate Office. Is there such a thing?

I can’t believe they are still trying this. Here is an article my accountant sent me from the IRS.

IRS Newswire August 28, 2014

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Issue Number:    IR-2014-84 Inside This Issue Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot   Suspicious Calls WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service issued a consumer alert today providing taxpayers with additional tips to protect themselves from telephone scam artists calling and pretending to be with the IRS. These callers may demand money or may say you have a refund due and try to trick you into sharing private information. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They may know a lot about you, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request. “These telephone scams are being seen in every part of the country, and we urge people not to be deceived by these threatening phone calls,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “We have formal processes in place for people with tax issues. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and these angry, shake-down calls are not how we do business.” The IRS reminds people that they can know pretty easily when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam. The IRS will never: 1. Call you about taxes you owe without first mailing you an official notice. 2. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe. 3. Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card. 4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. 5. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying. If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do: If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue. If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov. If you’ve been targeted by this scam, also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint. Remember, too, the IRS does not use email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box. Additional information about tax scams are available on IRS social media sites, including YouTube http://youtu.be/UHlxTX4rTRU?list=PL2A3E7A9BD8A8D41D. and Tumblr http://internalrevenueservice.tumblr.com where people can search “scam” to find all the scam-related posts. Back to Top Thank you for subscribing to the IRS Newswire, an IRS e-mail service. If you know someone who might want to subscribe to this mailing list, please forward this message to them so they can subscribe. This message was distributed automatically from the mailing list IRS Newswire. Please Do Not Reply To This Message.

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Beware of Scam Phone Callers identifying themselves as calling from the Legal Affairs Agency (IRS)

This past Sunday I received a call from a foreign gentleman stating he was from the Legal Affairs Agency and told me that the IRS had issued a warrant for my arrest for fraudulent tax reporting and they wanted me to wait at my house for two agents from the IRS to come and identify me and take me to jail for 6 months.

After being hung up on from the caller, (I called him back on the number he left me), I realized that this was a total scam. After spending a little time researching the phone number and referencing IRS Scam it seems that this has been going on for a very long time. It is a well documented scam so beware if you get the call. They are very convincing and for most of us, the bare mention of the IRS has us scared sh!!!less. If you have ever been through an IRS audit you will find that if they want to, they’ll find something to justify their looking at you. So when something like this happens you might have a tendency to jump to the wrong conclusion.

They never did ask for money from me but they have from other reports. Can’t imagine why they didn’t try with me but I was giving them a lot of guff. First off, the government is not going to haul you off without notification. Second, a foreign accent coming from the Southwest and not local or in DC is just not going to happen. When my accountant confronted they on the phone by asking for their supervisors name and number they just hung up. This would probably be a great way to shut them up very quickly. Anyway, I just wanted to make you aware that these guys handle social engineering real will and can get you going if you don’t sit back and think about what they are telling you.

How do you prevent being aggravated from this? If you don’t recognize the number on your caller don’t pickup! They will get discouraged if they don’t ever talk to someone and eventually go away. If you want to find out who the caller was Google the number. It should give you hint as to where it is coming from. If you are not expecting a call like this, of course you’re not, just don’t respond. Take a deep breath and erase the message and go on with your life.