Dangerous New Trend in IRS Scams
- Colorado| 1 replyIRS hoaxers are now calling local police, claiming violent crimes are occurring at their target's residence, resulting in dangerous armed responses.Quote:An IRS scam led to a SWAT situation and school lock down on the north side of Colorado Springs Monday. Now, as Colorado Springs Police investigate what they call a "disturbing" new scam, the homeowners share their shock at how it all unfolded."I walked outside and there was men with shields and guns and they were standing outside ready to raid my house," said Amber Davis, 20.
Davis said all day she had been harassed by phone calls form different numbers, even one that showed up as the main desk line of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Each call had someone on the other line, saying her father, James Davis, owed the IRS thousands of dollars in back taxes and if they didn't pay up, law enforcement would show up at their home and arrest him.
"And when they could not get him to give them the money they called in this false, or this hoax emergency into his home," said Lt. Catherine Buckley with Colorado Springs. - Colorado
- Sir Bedevere| 6 replies"Swatting" has become frighteningly common in other contexts recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/technology/ ... responders.html (New York Times – requires login)
In that example, it's teenage gamers getting revenge on other online players but there's no reason all kinds of other sleazebags couldn't take up the practice. Indian IRS scammers are potentially the least of our worries as far as this is concerned. Gang members? Drug dealers? Any other criminals? You can imagine a long list of creepy types to whom this would appeal.
This is a dramatic demonstration of why our broken telephony and Caller ID system – which effectively permits unidentifiable, untraceable calls through VOIP – needs to be addressed NOW. - GateKeeper| 6 repliesThis is - to me - a shining example of why it's best just to block and ignore.
Engaging, aggravating, insulting, or tormenting a phone scammer might make them mad enough to do something like this. - Audrey A| 5 repliesI missed a call the other day from 818 337-4617. when I checked the voicemail message, someone with a heavy accent claimed to be calling to notify me that according to IRS records, there was a lien against my property due to a large sum of money owed (no specific property address was mentioned) and if I didn't call them back ASAP at that 818 337-4617 to reconcile this money owed, someone from the sheriff's office would be coming within the next X number of days to arrest me. I called the number back, actually genuinely looking forward to taking this sham as far as I could take it, but no one picked up. It just rang and rang and timed out. I guess I just sit back and wait to get arrested!
- toby| 3 repliesWonder if the US government will ever start taking this seriously? The American people are literally under attack by a foreign power--in the case of telefraud, India--and the US government doesn't seem to want to bother anyone about it. The Indian government is hopelessly corrupt, many officials benefitting from criminal payoffs, and so the Indians themselves won't lift a finger to prevent this avalanche of crime against Americans, especially since they are making so much money doing it. Until the US government starts caring and imposes sanctions against the Indian government for its knowing complicity in this crime wave, the American people will continue to be victimized.
- Slim replies to Audrey AIntelligent visitors post in the correct area, so they can help others or get help themselves.
If you have a phone number associated with your complaint, look elsewhere on this page for something like this:
Then, post the phone number in the Custom Search Box.
You will soon learn if previous posts were made about that phone number, and your post will be available to help other intelligent visitors.
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-818-337-4617
In other words, do not post "number complaints" in the Forum. Use one of the "number threads", unless you want to be classified as an "unintelligent visitor", and suffer the slings and arrows of other outraged visitors. - Sir Bedevere| 3 repliesBy the way, let's not overreact here (as I may be guilty of doing a little in my post earlier in the thread): One incident doesn't make a "trend" – that's just media hype intended to sell a news story. I expect this is an extreme outlier – if anything is going to get law enforcement to spend the time, money and manpower to track down these criminals it's a stupid stunt like this, so I'd be surprised to see even one repeat of this incident. But it should serve as a wake up call as to what is possible.
- Alfalfa replies to tobyExcellent post. I am beginning to wonder about this too, especially since becoming a victim of financial transaction fraud twice in less than two months---both of which I am 99.9 percent positive originated from foreign and untraceable sources. I have asked for help from the Treasury Department, Social Security's OIG and the OCC, and the only one who even bothered to respond was the OCC---who sent me an apologetic letter stating this matter was "out of their jurisdiction" and they were forwarding my complaint to the CFPB, who already had a case file. If it is not 'their' job, then whose is it, exactly? Are they going to wait until our infrastructure crashes before they decide? I hope not!
- The-TruthLooks like I'll have to be more careful in my trolling of scam callers. Most of the time they don't know any personal information about me, or at least not my real address, but you never know which one is the psycho one who will cause you trouble. Like Sir Belvedere, I doubt it will ever become widespread, but I learned back in my 419 baiter days that you cover your tracks and recover them again when trolling criminals.
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- B-Edwards replies to AnonymMaybe I misunderstand, but Gatekeeper was not advocating or coming from fear - Gate's position is send a cool, clear and calm message, and Bock & Ignore is consistent with taking control. A scammer can call, but it is like hitting a Black Hole, with no response, a scammer is dead out of the loop. Your position has merit and I like your point about threats working both ways.
Some folks think Block & Ignore is somehow passive, but I contend that it is sound doctrine, even elegant, since you have taken the momentum from the scammer, you now know a great deal, and they know nothing at all. They might be irritated, but they also know that if they escalate, they are the ones under a magnifying glass. - MidNYteStorm replies to AnonymGatekeeper was offering a simple solution that has nothing to do with fear.
- TormentingTelemarketers| 1 replyThis one sounded a little different, too, not your run-of-the-mill IRS scammer, as noted by Sir Belvedere. Note that she had been called multiple times from multiple (spoofed) phone numbers. They typically don't do that, since there's no profit behind it. They'd rather get to the next rube to scam. There's got to be a little more to the story as to why that escalated (not blaming the victim, but truly interested in what tripped this one over the edge).
- Who cares| 5 repliesCalled me saying IRS is filing a complaint against me. Tried to call number back and busy, busy and busy. when does this madness end!!!!!!!
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