Posted on 09/29/2016 5:46:51 AM PDT by SES1066
Just recently, a new scam has started involving fake tax bills tied to the Affordable Care Act. In one sure sign the notices are fake, many are arriving by email—and the IRS doesn’t initiate taxpayer contact by email.
Even so, some of the fakes are paper notices sent by regular mail and taxpayers should watch out.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
If it does come by Post Office, look to see if the postage is from a postage meter or some other non-government franking. That is a dead give-away. Any concern about validity can be eased by either the local IRS office (requires patience and time) or by finding a local year-round tax prep office and taking it to them. (Yes, I am an Enrolled Agent and work seasonally for HR Block.) Such an office can look at the addresses and the format to see if it appears valid to that point.
The obvious fact is that, given our complex tax code and ominous IRS, the scare factor requires us to WASTE EFFORT to be SURE that such is a scam, not a 'legitimate' letter!
An easier option is to ignore it.
If it is really the IRS they will be sure to send you lots of certified letters in the future!
We have been getting threatening phone calls from a very poorly speaking English person on this issue. Hubby just hangs up on them. Number of bogus robo calls has increased a lot in the last year.
We get “This is the IRS, we will arrest you....” phone calls multiple times a week on a house phone we always let go to messages.
Sounds like people sitting in a call center (the background chatter) in India or somewhere - always with a heavy accent.
Last year we signed up for “nomorobo” and they have virtually eliminated these types of calls. I have no idea of their business model, but they have certainly almost eliminated dinner-time interruptions and credit card service calls.
Car warranties, Medicare, mortgages, pest control are the most common. Did no one check that we are on both Medicare/Tricare Life? or we already have a VA Mortage at 3.2% no one can beat that even those are some calls for a VA mortgage at a higher rate, and in another year house will be paid off. As hubby does most car repairs himself he could care less about an extended warranty. All he wants to know about is recall fixes.
Nomorobo is great ... if it works with your phone setup - doesn’t work for everyone.
The BEST and I do mean BEST $100 we have spent in recent years has been for a Digitone call blocker. My folks are elderly & appear to be on every scam phone list there is .... last week, we got 10 scam calls in one day. With the Digitone, the calls are all blocked. The new model will block 1,000 numbers; however, I have ours set up to block everything - that way, the ‘stray’ calls from many different states do not get through. When you block everything, you then invite who you want to talk to. Our local area code is invited (friends, doctors, family, church, etc.) & I can block troublesome individual numbers or exchanges within that area code. I also can invite family/friends who live out of state. It works like a charm (first ring suppressed so you don’t hear it, hangs up on them on the second ring - works by using caller ID - can block by number or now, by name). The numbers blocked show up on the Call Blocker so you can make sure you’re not blocking anyone you want to talk to & you can see all the scammers that are getting hung up on. :-)
In general, if you get a call & you don’t know who it is, just put the number in your browser (I use bing) & look for any 800notes or Mr. Number comments .... you can easily identify most scam numbers this way if you’re curious. We have gotten the IRS call, this is Microsoft & your computer has a virus, this is Lisa with Green study & if you take our survey you’ll get a free cruise, we are calling because the back/knee/whatever brace you called us about is ready to ship, etc. etc.
http://www.digitone.com/Digitone%20ProSeries%20Blocker%20FAQ.htm
The mind-numbing part of the story was that the payment was demanded in iTunes cards...and people complied!
Never toy with a suspected scam artist
"In a recent week, out of 120 people who reported paying scammers, 100 did so using iTunes gift cards."
What I would recommend is to establish an online account with the IRS. It is not hard to do if you have a few pieces of info from you tax return. You can then log in, and see the status of your taxes.
If you get something through the mail, you could just look online and see if there is an official notice attached to your account. Chances are, there won’t be.
The problem with that is that the number is supplied by the calling phone. They can input any number they like, including the official number of the IRS in Washington. Some of them do that.
Mail them back an obscene answer. If no armed men show up at your door a few weeks later, it was a scam.
Would that also affect the confirmation of appointment calls from my cardiologist? They use an automated notification system.
I got call. I told them I get law suits every year from the IRS. They hung up.
Those are “spoofed” numbers ..... 800notes & Mr. Number will have comments on those. The IRS does not call - they use the mail, so if you see IRS on Caller ID, it’s probably spoofed. Look it up & see what comments are out there for verification.
Most of the calls we get either have “Unavailable” or “Out of Area” or it is a city/state that shows up on the Caller ID. Occasionally, you’ll get an actual name. Digitone automatically blocks anything without a valid 10-digit number (we got one that looks like this once: *##-#*3-#### They were trying to get around the requirement for a number - didn’t work, got blocked :-) Another one recently, just had the number ‘3’.
We have had to block our own phone number - somebody spoofed our name/number on Caller ID. Since we do not call ourselves from our own home number, blocking incoming calls with our number/name doesn’t cause us any problem but the spoofers cannot get through.
If I saw something like IRS---Washington, DC on Caller ID, I would pick up and answer with "County Fraud Investigations Office".
Should the fraudster continue with their spiel, I would reiterate..."This is the county fraud investigations office, do you wish to report a fraudulent activity?"
I do not think so because we get calls from the pharmacy to pick up regular 90-day prescriptions. But I am not sure how the system decides which calls to block and which to let through. My guess is that there is a look up database but I do not know definitively. You should know after one appointment.
My latest way to respond, if they ask for my wife or me by name is to calmly say "what is the color of the day and your operator number". When they don't respond (not that there is a good response), I tell them that they have called a non working number.
* * *
“We get “This is the IRS, we will arrest you....” phone calls multiple times a week on a house phone we always let go to messages.
Sounds like people sitting in a call center (the background chatter) in India or somewhere - always with a heavy accent.”
There needs to be a class action lawsuit against AT&T. They have no compunction about selling DID lines to out of the country scammers. Then when you get frustrated with the sheer volume of calls to your landline phone, the “offer” to “sell” you a “service” to stop “most” of the calls they have enabled.
Talk about Wells Fargo, they are a sunday school class by comparison to AT&T. And just look, Judge Harold Greene broke up AT&T 30 years ago, but AT&T has managed to put itself back together again despite his efforts.
Interesting article here:
https://www.pindropsecurity.com/irs-phone-scam-live-call_analysis/
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