IRS Law Suit

[audreyh1]

I'll go ahead and do that.

Thanks!

 

[unclemick]

Just learned today that the IRS has filed a suit against me.

I was contacted on my cell phone. The initial phone ID was from Russia. I let it go to message. I was surprised that they left a message (a recording), directing me to call a number in Charlotte, NC. where they would be more than happy to help me with the suit.

Seriously, how often do these scams work? Then I think of my 90 year old mother, and what she might do if she answered this call.

Has any one else experienced this? Is this something I should report? To whom?

Thanks for the input.

Sooo - have all the Nigerians of yesteryear or ancient days died off?

heh heh heh - this must be the new new.

 

[audreyh1]

Sooo - have all the Nigerians of yesteryear or ancient days died off?

heh heh heh - this must be the new new.

Lot of talent working on IRS scams because so far it's been easy pickings.

Sill shaking my head at the phishing that gets someone to email out hundreds of employee W2s.

 

[MichaelB]

Lot of talent working on IRS scams because so far it's been easy pickings.

There are easy picking all around, especially in the banking and corporate world, but they are usually not disclosed. The absolute insistence on immediate response and minimum cost / human intervention creates lots of benefits for us but also opportunity to exploit. The IRS needs to step up to the plate but they the budget and hiring support.

This just showed up in the news. A $100M electronic theft.

Hackers allegedly breached the Bangladesh central bank’s security system and then masqueraded as Bangladeshi officials to submit a series of requests for the New York Federal Reserve to transfer large tranches of money from its account there.

 

[audreyh1]

There have been some amazing hacked ATM heists

$45M in 10 hours: In Hours, Thieves Took $45 Million in A.T.M. Scheme http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-45-million-global-cyber-bank-thefts.html

$1B from 100 banks:
Hackers stole from 100 banks and rigged ATMs to spew cash http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/15/technology/security/kaspersky-bank-hacking/

 

[jollystomper]

I have a PC program to block landline calls, and I can also direct it to play s specific recording instead of just blocking. So I created several recordings that makes it seem like an actual person has answered. It is entertaining to hear some of these "salespeople" and scammers trying to interact with a recording...

 

[Badger]

We've gotten to be big users of caller id...if we don't know the number we simply don't answer
I figure Anything important they will leave a message...

Chances are they want money or to scam.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum.

+1 If not on my directory then I don't answer.

 

[Walt34]

I am offended. They called twice and one we let go to voice mail, the second one I answered because we still have one phone that does not display caller I.D. and I was in that room.

I feel offended because it was a recording. Don't they believe that I have enough money to make it worthwhile to have a live person call? Poo on them!

 

[jim584672]

I got the message in voice mail too. They must be calling every known number.

 

[kcowan]

I had a call claiming to be my bank and asking me to call back and quote a number. I did call the bank at their fraud reporting number and the agent said I must have the number. I asked to talk to her supervisor and told her their front-line staff needed better training.

It did turn out to be a valid concern because they got a charge from Canada while knowing we were in Mexico. I asked them if they had ever heard of pre-authorized charges.

I also recommended that they abandon their practice of leaving phone messages given the rampant phone scams that are part of our lives.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Sooo - have all the Nigerians of yesteryear or ancient days died off?

Nope, they are still there. I start getting e-mails in my spam box (in my business/professional address) about 8 AM every day. Sometimes 20+ a day. I used to read them but someone here warned me against it. The titles make me laugh though. The people who have me on their lists must be on the lowest rung of the brains ladder.

Funny. I get very little on my very old personal address. I do know that two of my good professional friends were hacked some time ago and I get spam ever since. One of them gets a lot of joke e-mails that he sends to me. (I never open such links but he don't care, I guess. He seems to collect viruses.) The other may have been spending too much time on inappropriate web sites. I am also dead certain that some got my address from my professional society in Florida who posts such things open to the public.

 

[RobbieB]

I have been getting these recorded messages for years now and just got another one. All the rest have been a woman telling me that the IRS is planning to file a lawsuit and to call a number. Haven't heard from them in years.

But today, a recorded male voice called and said there was a lawsuit filed and to call this number. Sure, I'll get right on that.

Amazing. It's too bad that people get sucked into this stuff.

 

[splitwdw]

I have been getting these recorded messages for years now and just got another one. All the rest have been a woman telling me that the IRS is planning to file a lawsuit and to call a number. Haven't heard from them in years.

But today, a recorded male voice called and said there was a lawsuit filed and to call this number. Sure, I'll get right on that.

Amazing. It's too bad that people get sucked into this stuff.

Maybe they think people will respond to a male voice. I think they're funny when I get those calls but my sister worries that it's the real thing. Even though they've had on the news about this scam.

 

[easysurfer]

Maybe they think people will respond to a male voice. I think they're funny when I get those calls but my sister worries that it's the real thing. Even though they've had on the news about this scam.

Before having a call blocker, I got these IRS scam calls and remembered the caller saying he was officer so and so with badge number so and so. I suppose hoping folks will fall for the imagined authority.

 

[Tadpole]

My husband picked up an anonymous call (private number) today from a foreign accent that had $8000 of my husband's. Is there just no way to block a call from an anonymous/private number. Is the number really that hidden? How do they get "private number" designation; it must be easy.

 

[RobbieB]

Tell her not to worry. She can go right to the IRS site where they tell you right up front;

1) The IRS never calls you.
2) The IRS sends you a bill in the mail if they have a problem with your taxes.

Not to mention they will fang your back account, garnish your wages and lien your property long before a lawsuit is filed. This stuff is fairly common knowledge.

 

[eytonxav]

Have received several of these calls. I guess they can set up these scams and move them around faster than they can get caught; too bad, I'd really like to see more of these dirt bags behind bars.

 

[RobbieB]

I have a better idea. We give them a "fresh start", a new beginning complete with all their ill gotten gains intact so they will have something to begin their "new life"

We simply determine all they stole and place that amount in nickles in a container and attach that to their waist securely. Then take them just outside of territorial waters of a country that has no US extradition treaty, give them directions and toss them overboard.

 

[Sunset]

Maybe they think people will respond to a male voice. I think they're funny when I get those calls but my sister worries that it's the real thing. Even though they've had on the news about this scam.

Makes me wonder if your sister ....stretches... her deductions

 

[Sunset]

Lots of these phone scammers are in foreign countries, using internet phoning so it's basically free to phone us, and spoofing the caller id (which is easy to do even in legitimate usage).

Since they are outside US, you can forget about them ever being caught and punished enough for it to stop.

 

[Clone]

Just give them the contact information for the lawyer with your long last Nigerian bank account. Let them work out the payment details...

 

[Walt34]

We just got another call yesterday, unfortunately it was the recording so I couldn't play with them.

 

[RobbieB]

It's always been the recording here, never a live person.

 

[scrabbler1]

Don't you remember the good old days (i.e. 1990s and earlier) when, if the phone rang it was a live person and that live person was someone you knew and (usually) was glad to hear from? That was the rule and the exception was a wrong number or an otherwise unwanted call. These days, most of the times my phone rings (landline or rather new cell phone) it is a spammer, scammer, robocall, telemarketer, survey taker, charity, sales pitch, or some other kind of unwanted, annoying caller. An actual phone call from a real live person I know is the exception these days, as my phone has become little more than a receptacle to receive all of the garbage and noise pollution which enters my home.

 

[RobbieB]

That's the truth. If you want to talk to me you have to "speak after the beep"

The phone rings at least 5 times a day and nobody (but recordings) ever speaks.

Except real people that I know. It's sad that I (and they) have to play this game.