Don’t ever respond to the phone calls (or e-mails) supposedly from the IRS. They are phony. SCAMS!! Reported on CBS this Morning. This is not how the IRS works—although it’s a pretty heavy handed organization since release of information on investigating and harassing Christian and conservative organizations.
Just keep hanging up when you get such a call.
“Another major telemarketing scam starts with a threatening phone call supposedly from the IRS demanding money.
Tim Poulakis says he responded to a voice mail message from a man who said, “I am officer Andy from Internal Revenue Service.” The caller warned him “don’t discard this message” and told him to return the call before we take any legal action against you.
Poulakis said when he heard the message, “I panicked.”
He called back and was told he owed the IRS money for errors in four years of tax returns. Poulakis said he was told he had to pay the money that day. “Otherwise you will be detained. Sheriffs will come to your office,” and he would be arrested.
“They put the fear of God in me,” Poulakis said and he followed their instructions. He was told to pull money out his account, go to stores and load up prepaid cash cards to pay off the $3,489 debt. They had him scratch a number off the back of the card, read it to them, and kept him on the phone until the money was apparently downloaded to an account.
Then Poulakis was told they had some type of error and the amount was incorrect. He actually owed an additional amount ultimately bringing his total to $20,177. He followed the same instructions using prepaid cash cards explaining that he always tries to “do what’s right,” and “I just wanted this to go away.”
After learning from his tax preparer that this was a scam, “I was crying. And I couldn’t believe it. I was so angry.”
This woman knew it was a scam and decided to scam the scammer. Watch what she does—leads them on (they barely speak English), then tells them what they are doing is illegal, so they hang up on her.
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