20th June 2017 by Christopher Burgess
The phone rings. You answer it and the voice on the other end says, “This is the Internal Revenue Service [irs] calling about your delinquent taxes.” Your mind immediately goes to, “Really?” While the voice continues how a penalty is now due or an arrest warrant will be issued. And you don’t want to be arrested, so you listen and learn. You learn that if you pay the penalty, right now, all will be brought up to date and you will have additional time to sort out your delinquent status. Sound far-fetched? This scam happens every day. Indeed, it happens thousands of times a day.
When you think of this type of scam, our mind conjures up an image of a boiler room operation. And you would not be wrong. A recent review of the series of guilty pleas by members of an Indian and US based group of conspirators who defrauded at least 15,000 victims has been obtained by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
In late 2016, a federal grand jury returned an indictment and the DOJ charged 56 individuals and five India-based call centers with conducting various scams, including the IRS scam. A review of the original indictment shows us how the infrastructure and methodology of the call-center scam is a bit more complex. Let’s take a look. Full Article.
Anatomy of a scam: how phone frauds harvest millions from us
Userlevel 7
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Hi Jasper,
That truly rings (no pun intended) true. I received multiple calls from the alleged IRS. I contacted someone in our Government (memory fails me) and the women told me how many people actually fell for this scam and some even sent more than one payment. She then said that one retired gentleman gave them over $20K. She was so upset with the increase in scams. I know, a govt employee with a soul! :S She also said it usually happens around tax time (April 15th), to seniors and to newly emigrated people. How they find this information is unknown but if you are evil, I guess that you can do just about anything you want.
Sometimes the caller ID is my own telephone number. They sure do know how to work around our systems.
Thanks for the post.
T
That truly rings (no pun intended) true. I received multiple calls from the alleged IRS. I contacted someone in our Government (memory fails me) and the women told me how many people actually fell for this scam and some even sent more than one payment. She then said that one retired gentleman gave them over $20K. She was so upset with the increase in scams. I know, a govt employee with a soul! :S She also said it usually happens around tax time (April 15th), to seniors and to newly emigrated people. How they find this information is unknown but if you are evil, I guess that you can do just about anything you want.
Sometimes the caller ID is my own telephone number. They sure do know how to work around our systems.
Thanks for the post.
T
Userlevel 4
Thank you Jasper for this detailed information relating to the serious concern of scamming! Sharing your knowledge and experience is helping us (me as a non-techie) to know what to beware of. Education as in your post (easily understood without any acronyms) makes ALL the difference in being as prepared as we can for the frightening scammers. Thank you so much.
The first hint that something is wrong? The twit who answers the return call comes out with the name , as an example, Bob Johnson of the internal revenue service.......When, if one listens, has the voice of an East Indian in most cases. Or Iris Smith.......AND these scammers have a tough time following their script if one questions them about their nattering.Then there's this.... The local police department will arrive on your doorstep within the hour to (a) arrest you (b) take your car (c) shoot your dog (d) take your bank account (e) AND take YOU away in handcuffs. Of course, if you want to settle up outside the courthouse.....Of course one can tell them to, you know.
It's truly sad that folks actually fall for this. You should here the reaction of these scammers when one talks to them in Mandarin.....
It's truly sad that folks actually fall for this. You should here the reaction of these scammers when one talks to them in Mandarin.....
I don't answer phone calls if I don't recognize the number, but my comment is; now that the IRS has hired collection agencies to collect money for them, they can, and will call. Many of them are rude and aggressive. They will threaten, intimidate, & harrass people, legally. It will soom be hard to tell if it is a scam or a collector. If one knows that they do not owe any money to the IRS, then they should just hang up or don't answer in the first place.
Userlevel 7
Hi Patthemech1
Welcome to the Community Forums.
On my WIndows Phone I use something called Truecaller which effectively tries to validate unknown callers for one...obviously just because one does not know a caller does not mean they are not legitimate..but when one does not know that they the 'safe' approach is to assume not.
So, if Truecaller identifies the caller then one can take a more informed decision, and if it does not/cannot then one can reject the call with a higher degree of confidence that one is doing the right thing.
This i not perfect, obviously, but I find it helps. You may want to check out whether it is available for your OS and if it will assist you with your conundrum?
Hope that helps?
Regards, Baldrick
Welcome to the Community Forums.
On my WIndows Phone I use something called Truecaller which effectively tries to validate unknown callers for one...obviously just because one does not know a caller does not mean they are not legitimate..but when one does not know that they the 'safe' approach is to assume not.
So, if Truecaller identifies the caller then one can take a more informed decision, and if it does not/cannot then one can reject the call with a higher degree of confidence that one is doing the right thing.
This i not perfect, obviously, but I find it helps. You may want to check out whether it is available for your OS and if it will assist you with your conundrum?
Hope that helps?
Regards, Baldrick
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