I thought I would share the below. A co-worker came into my office during lunch today (interrupting my BGP time BTW) stating that he had to run home because an IRS agent had called him, and they were coming to his house to serve him papers and that he needed to contact a criminal attorney. I told him that this sounded fishy to me as having way more IRS than I ever wanted, I know that 1) they don't do anything without serving multiple mail notices; and 2) any time I had ever spoken with someone at the IRS, they were helpful and informative. We called the agent back who answered the call and was very sketchy and abrupt. Then, we called the IRS taxpayer advocacy number, and they immediately told my co-worker that this is a scam. So I found the below.

 

Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot Suspicious Calls

 

IR-2014-84, Aug. 28, 2014

 

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service issued a consumer alert today providing taxpayers with additional tips to protect themselves from telephone scam artists calling and pretending to be with the IRS.

 

These callers may demand money or may say you have a refund due and try to trick you into sharing private information. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They may know a lot about you, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request.

 

“These telephone scams are being seen in every part of the country, and we urge people not to be deceived by these threatening phone calls,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “We have formal processes in place for people with tax issues. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and these angry, shake-down calls are not how we do business.”

 

The IRS reminds people that they can know pretty easily when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam. The IRS will never:

1.Call to demand immediate payment, nor will we call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill..

 

 

2.Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.

 

 

3.Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.

 

 

4.Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

 

 

5.Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

 

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do:

•If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue.

 

 

•If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484 or at U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

 

 

•You can file a complaint using the FTC Complaint Assistant; choose “Other” and then “Imposter Scams.” If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.

 

Remember, too, the IRS does not use unsolicited email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to Internal Revenue Service and type “scam” in the search box.

 

Additional information about tax scams are available on IRS social media sites, including YouTube and Tumblr where people can search “scam” to find all the scam-related posts.

Those people need a bullet. In the knee.

A FB friend of mine almost got taken by this scam a couple of weeks ago. They had an incredible amount of information about her and her family. Thank goodness she called an IRS friend and found out the truth.

 

The IRS will never call you. All of their correspondence is done via the mail.

Actually had this happen to me about 8-10 months ago. First phone call caught me off guard, so much so that I didn't write down the phone number they gave in the message. I was in such a hurry to call my wife to find out if she had heard anything (she hadn't). About two weeks later, got the same call. This time I wrote down the phone number they gave, and hit Google. Found out that it was a scam then. Can't post what I said at that time.

I have practiced before the IRS for 35 years. I have never had a client receive a phone call from the IRS unless it was returning a call they or I had placed. The IRS loves to kill trees and will send you many notices before they would attempt any other means of communication.

Those people need a bullet. In the knee.

 

Yep...the wee-knee.

We had one call our landline about two months ago, you could tell right off the bat that it was fake. They ended the call with something like "If you choose to ignore this warning, all we can tell you is good luck". We reported it to two different agencies, one told me that somehow they bounce the call around and what seemed to be a number from the Seattle area, is not even near Seattle.

I had one of those IRS phone calls I googled the phone number and it was a scam.

Like 75Center said above, if you get a phone call out of the blue from the IRS wanting money, then it isn't from the IRS.