There's a new scam about

[brush]

At least it's new to me. I just got a call from a recorded message with a young woman's voice saying that I was the subject of an inquiry by the IRS and I was to either press "1" or call a phone number the voice recited.

I smelled a rat so I pressed "1" immediately. A man with an accent like you get on call service lines answered with: "This is the IRS. Your social security number please."

I asked, "how do I know you're the IRS", and he hung up immediately.

It's tax season so beware!

[GoCubsGo]

1. Another dead give-away that this is a scam: The phone call, itself.

The IRS does not initiate contact via telephone. They always send notifications through the mail.

https://www.irs.gov/uac/Stay-Vigilant-Against-Bogus-IRS-Phone-Calls-and-Emails

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. You have to have your Magic Decoder Voice Analysis Ring on to verify his IRS status.

Which is also sold by the same company that makes the calls. Shipped Free from Nigeria

[kimbutgar]

3. I got a scammy call that I had a warrant out for my arrest with some crazy number to call back

My husband got a call like that and they asked him to give them a prepaid visa card with $700 to pay a lawyer to represent him. I called our local police department and reported it, there are these scams going around that say someone has an arrest warrant or the IRS is after them. The IRS would never call, they send letters if you are in trouble.

[xmas74]

6. I had that one about twelve years ago.

It was in an email. I was still working as a dispatcher at the time. I spoke to the sargeant on duty and he let me use the warrant entry room. I called them back on a recorded line and asked for the warrant number, stating that I was going to enter it and read the warrant entry through NCIC back. I've never heard anyone so scared before, until he started bragging and offering to pay me if I'd give him phone sex instead.

At the time that call was from a prepaid phone but now most are skyped numbers. They couldn't do anything to catch them but my old call was used as a training call for many years with the local PDs.

[sharp_stick]

4. This has been around for awhile

Last year I got one, didn't have the recorded message part though it was a real woman.

I kept her on the line for about 10 or 12 minutes letting her think I was just about to head out to Western Union to send the cash. Then, when I couldn't think of anything else to say, I heaped enough profane abuse on her, her family and her friends that it left me a little shocked. Then I hung up, never heard from them again.

[brush]

5. Heehee! You even shocked yourself? I'd like to have heard that.

[sharp_stick]

7. My wife listened to the whole thing

and by the end she was laughing pretty hard. I think she actually got hiccups.

[2naSalit]

8. It has been rearing its ugly head in my area lately...

the regional NPR station announces it several times a day.

I was getting calls about some fine I allegedly didn't pay last year, they said a judgement would be rendered against me if I didn't respond immediately. I hung up and investigated. You can google the phone # and see that it has probably been used for fraud for some time. But then, that's how I figured out that OPM was hacked over a month before they were willing to admit it. My phone and my sister's phone and all our info was available to the hackers. We both had federal background checks over the past couple ears... I had never mentioned her in any of my docs and had only had only started using her phone number for a couple weeks.

Technology, wasn't it supposed to make life better?