In recent months, the Marcum Tax Professionals have warned our readers related to many of these IRS phone scams. Federal law enforcement (FBI, Homeland Security, IRS Criminal Investigation, and Treasury Inspector General or TIGTA) are jointly investigating the “boiler rooms” that originate these calls. The TIGTA believe these operations are located in India and they are pursuing aggressively.
Callers pose as IRS agents or INS agents and have personal information such as social security numbers and home addresses. This data can be easily bought or obtained for free online which is why the imposters seem to know a lot about the person being targeted. The callers then threaten the homeowner with legal action if funds are not transmitted immediately. Many times the money is requested in gift card format! (The IRS does not want to get paid in gift cards and the IRS does not threaten to send the sheriff to your office to arrest you if you don’t go to the bank and pay immediately.)
Please ignore these calls and don’t provide any personal information to these callers who indicate they are from the IRS. Don’t be scared or threatened. If you cannot handle the caller, refer the call to your Marcum Tax Professional or other attorney or representative.
Additional Resources:
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2014-03.htm
Please share this information with others as no one is safe and the more informed the population is the quicker we can help to shut this down.
