I've been getting a couple calls where a recorded voice says that the IRS has a warrant for my arrest and I need to talk to them to settle up my back taxes. If you get one of these, HANG UP. The IRS does not work this way - if they want to communicate with you, they send you a letter via snail mail.
These are like the Nigerian Prince, only via telephone (almost certainly Voice over IP, or VOIP, which lets them call from pretty much anywhere in the world toll free). Just hang up if you get one of these nuisance calls.
IRS robo called here too, threatening to sue me ...
ReplyDeleteMaybe the NSA, CIA, FBI and the rest of our alphabet soup of foreign and domestic spies could round these pseudo IRS suckers up and arrange for some good old-fashioned down-home waterboarding.
I love to get in touch with the human part of the call and then start trolling the hell out of them.
ReplyDeleteYeah I got a slew of these for about a year, a couple of years ago. Always a message left, never a live call. Always a thick South Asian accent, always threatening. Apparently I have quite a few federal subpoenas and warrants out for what I owed.
ReplyDeletePeople have been getting them around here, too. I am glad we've been paying to have our taxes done the last four years. I know we are good so I don't do something stupid.
ReplyDeleteI had a client sitting in my driveway get one of these calls. Instead of coming in he drove to Walmart and sent the callers $2000 by reading them money order serial numbers over the phone. He came back to us, still on the telephone, almost in tears, as they continued to threaten. I asked for the phone, told them I was his accountant, click.
ReplyDeleteThe $2000 was long gone.
I told one client that if she was unsure to simply ask them for her social security number. The IRS would have that. She asked and they responded, "No you tell me and I'll verify it." That was enough and she was done.
The was a story on the local news about this scam today. They had called a phone number that happened to be at the local sheriffs department, and were talking to one of the deputies. Kept telling him he needed to send them money or they were going to go the sheriffs department and have them come to his house and arrest him for his outstanding taxes. They hung up quick when he told them HE was the sheriff.
ReplyDeletePretty funny.
Too bad they weren't able to trace the call.
ReplyDeleteI have gotten a few of these calls. I always tell them to come and get me....bring it on. Click
ReplyDeleteI have just stopped answering calls from numbers I don't recognize. If it is someone I actually want to talk to, they will leave a voice mail.
ReplyDeleteI usually give them my full work title name and tell them to call me back at the office. They hang up pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteAnswering the phone from strangers? Who still does that?
ReplyDeleteAny number of official offices could call and not be listed. I have four numbers from the local VA and still get calls from other numbers. Same with my primary doctor's office.
ReplyDeletePut a sale ad in the paper or something, more unlisted calls. Had one son who changed cell numbers twice in one year. It can happen.
LindaG, it's pretty easy to make yourself hard to trace over VoIP. Not impossible, but a fair amount of work that will likely require court orders.
ReplyDeleteJust got a similar call offering to reduce my overdue Student Loan balances. Then they blew their pitch when they claimed that a "new Obama Administration program....".
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to run a scam , at least keep it current.