Hoax calls from somebody claiming to be with the IRS

Has anybody received a call from somebody claiming to be from the IRS stating that you need to call them back and that you are in tax trouble?  It must be a hoax.  I have never received a call from the IRS.  In those cases where there has been a mistake on my taxes, it has always been handled by mail.


According to Google, calls from people claiming to be from the IRS are on the rise.

Not me directly, but a friend of mine did.  It's very intimidating and scary to some people if they not aware of the scam.


There was a thread on the old MOL about it.


I did a search. Apparently, there are a bunch of threads on it, but this is the one I was thinking about:

http://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/id/114530-I-was-just-viciously-scammed-


Very common and definitely a scam.


Anytime you get a call or an email and they mention "GreenDot" or "MoneyPak," it is most likely a scam,   just google those words and scam and see the literal plethora of scams involving them  


This notice warning of the scam has been posted on the South Orange website by the SOPD, and it has also been distributed to residents by the neighborhood associations: 


http://southorange.org/notices.asp?guid=f2713d93


Lots of coverage lately. I believe the IRS issued some info stating that they never call people demanding payment of taxes and that these calls should be ignored (or reported to local authorities). And everyone agrees they sound very authentic, and very intimidating and scary.


cody said:

Lots of coverage lately. I believe the IRS issued some info stating that they never call people demanding payment of taxes and that these calls should be ignored (or reported to local authorities). And everyone agrees they sound very authentic, and very intimidating and scary.

This is true.  I have had 3 (!) such calls.  One a number of months ago on my home line - nearly gave me a panic attack as they used terms such as failure to respond will result in a warrant being issued...  Then two last week on my cell phone which is the number associated with my business.  Similar threats in each message.  They always need a call back to a different number than the one which they called from.  Googling indicated that one number that came in on my phone was an actual IRS number but there are software hacks that allow people to appear to be calling from a number other than actual.  

The IRS does not contact people this way.  Never give any personal information to someone who calls and says they are from the IRS.

We put out an alert about this sometime ago. Naturally, IRS scams spike during tax season but this year has been especially problematic. Here is the info we linked to in our notification:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Completes-the-Dirty-Dozen-Tax-Scams-for-2015

ETA: Just noticed Cramer beat me to it. Thanks for keeping on top of things and spreading the word. 

What a shytty thing to do to someone. Anything to do with the IRS scares the heck out of an awful lot of people, and these scum are taking full advantage of that. I hope anyone who gets calls is reporting them to the authorities.


I've been called five times, probably because the first time, I fell for it. Just tell them you know they're a scam. I like to shame them, and ask them.what county they're calling from, and what rhymes with ham (scam) and they're going to jail, and they should go to.church and pray for forgiveness. 

They haven't called for weeks.


I get all sorts of calls, but usually they get filtered through nomorobo, which I set up--although it only works on VOIP phones not landline (copper) phones. It's free. Your phone will ring once at your home and the rest of the time at their location. I can't understand how they can afford to give it away for free, but while it hasn't cut down on the number of calls,it has cut down on the number of rings.... Telemarketers hate them and have sought legislation to stop what they do. 



marylago said:

I get all sorts of calls, but usually they get filtered through nomorobo, which I set up--although it only works on VOIP phones not landline (copper) phones. It's free. Your phone will ring once at your home and the rest of the time at their location. I can't understand how they can afford to give it away for free, but while it hasn't cut down on the number of calls,it has cut down on the number of rings.... Telemarketers hate them and have sought legislation to stop what they do. 

 I don't remember the details, but it was some sort of agreement where they charge companies for the service in return for giving it to regular people for free.  Companies happily pay since anyone with a 1-800 number has to pay for each and every incoming call and the robo calls were costing them big time.



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