topic Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India in Community Chat

IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

NickNack — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:36:59 GMT

I get an e-mail every day from The Skimm. It's an abbreviated newsletter about the news. I thought this was interesting from today's e-mail. We've talked about this scam many times on this Board.

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Earlier this week, police in India arrested 70 people for allegedly posing as IRS agents. The posers have been operating a network of call centers for about a year. This is how it worked: people would get a text or voicemail that said they needed to call the IRS, ASAP. If they decided to call back, someone at the call center would apparently introduce themselves (in an American accent) as Christopher or Daniel. Because it doesn’t get more American than that. The scammers would then demand that money be sent to them or else the person on the phone would be arrested. Tax scams have been a major problem in the US in recent years. Apparently a lot of Americans think ‘gullible’ is written on the ceiling, because the call centers that were raided this week have been making as much as $150,000 a day. Indian police said an additional 600 people are under investigation.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Tricolor — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:46:29 GMT

Thank goodness they were caught! I have received numerous calls. Never would I fall for this nonsense but there were many unsuspecting individuals who have fallen prey. It is a shame that this people cannot put their talents to good use. A few months ago I received a call from a person speaking with an accent other than English claiming to be from Microsoft. I let him talk a little then I told him to stop and listen to me. I asked him if he lived in the US. He said he did. I told him how dare he try to scam me while living in this wonderful country. I also told him he contacted the home of a state police officer and could have him arrested. He hung up.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Mary Bailey — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:50:01 GMT

that is awsome!

Just last friday I had 3 vm on my cell phone that the IRS wanted to put me in jail. Two of those calls got through after I blocked the number.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

hoosieroriginal — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:50:48 GMT

That's great, but unfortunately there are a million other scammers out there preying on the elderly and have scammed them out of millions of dollars.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

cotton4me — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:49:28 GMT

So glad to hear this. When the scammers are in other countries it seems like they're out of reach of law enforcement but this shows otherwise. Hopefully law enforcement will continue to catch these people wherever they are.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

2blonde — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:08:22 GMT

Makes me think of the old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

LTT1 — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:10:49 GMT

@Tricolor

I love what you did!

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Moonchilde — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:10:59 GMT

It's interesting news in that apparently some law enforcement in India cares about such things, but this scam has been going on for years. Shutting down this office isn't going to mean this entire scam is "gone" now.

As for the callers having American accents - bwahahaha! Noooo, they do not. They can call themselves Barbie, Bootsie, Ken and Biff til the cows come home, but sound like anything other than being from the Indian subcontinent? Noooo.......

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

dex — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:45:32 GMT

I can't understand why people still fall prey to these calls.This stuff has been going on for so long that you would think everyone would be aware.This stuff is deplorable!Glad to hear that at least one operation has been shut down for now.I hope all involved enjoy their time off in prison and are forced to make some kind of restitution.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

chickenbutt — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:48:22 GMT

Yay! This is great. They need to continue to go after all these scammers so that this doesn't continue to be so lucrative.

Same for credit card scammers. Since the banks won't go after it, somebody needs to!

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Spurt — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 18:00:02 GMT

One scamming operation down and probably a million more to go......

I let my voice mail on both landline and smartphone screen my calls and I did get one of these IRS calls.....our local news did a story on these scams and had a special website where you could report these calls to....... It was funny because after I reported the number I never received another call.....looks like at least these scams are being given somewhat of a priority to stop....I just wish the govt was as diligent with ALL the telemarketing and robo calls that are scams....but it seems it would require too much of a workforce because it's so prevelant and growing...If these calls are originating from certain countries it would seem like the U.S. could impose sanctions against them unless they start to take action from their end to put a stop to them....But another way it could be handled is if people would educate themselves to the scams out there and make some phone calls first to the organizations that they supposedly orginated from (and not the number in the phone message) before sending cash......People appear to be uninformed and gullible to fall for these schemes....If no one fell for these scams and the scammers didn't get any business then they would stop.....But who was it, P.T. Barnum who said there's a sucker born every minute....still applies today...

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

cherry — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:52:02 GMT

They tried their stuff with me and I slammed the phone on them

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Spurt — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:54:45 GMT

@Mary Bailey wrote:
that is awsome!

Just last friday I had 3 vm on my cell phone that the IRS wanted to put me in jail. Two of those calls got through after I blocked the number.

@Mary Bailey

There's a website titled WHO CALLED ME where you can enter phone numbers to find out who and where they originated.....and I had to laugh because someone had posted a number the person's comments were---I received a call supposedly from the IRS that they were monitoring all my activities....so I looked out my window and not noticing any unmarked surveillance cars parked in front of my home so I figured it was a scam and reported this number to alert everyone else, check outside your window first before responding to these calls....if no ones there...it's a scam.... LOL!!!

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Laura14 — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:55:31 GMT

I got a recording so I guess they are learning to let the computer do the talking.

I was quite upset they didn't come and jail me. I could have used the time off work and I also could have been a shoo in for the next season of Orange is the New Black as an extra waving to everybody on Netflix.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Kachina624 — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 20:44:26 GMT

@NickNack I posted this a couple of days ago.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

bonnielu — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 20:48:59 GMT

My caller could barely speak English. I wanted to PLAY HIM. Heck had time my hands that day. I said I was from the IRS and he hung up in a split second.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

NickNack — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:11:51 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
@NickNack I posted this a couple of days ago.

I didn't see it @Kachina624. I usually look closely at these Boards but did miss that post.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

Shawnie — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:15:43 GMT

Microsoft called me. I told them how excited it was put Bill Gates on! They hung up. For the life of me i dont know why anyone would talk to the idiots and give them money but they do. The emails are never ending. Someone is always going to give me a gazillion dollars but I have to give them some first. Uh huh. BTW if the IRS was monitoring you they would not tell you, sooooo no need to look out your window to see if they are there. And you got to be somebody involved in some heavy stuff like drugs or money laundering or big time tax fraud before they would surveil you in the first place. So hang up, dont respond to any of these crooks.

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

fortune — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:46:35 GMT

@Nicknack wrote:
I get an e-mail every day from The Skimm. It's an abbreviated newsletter about the news. I thought this was interesting from today's e-mail. We've talked about this scam many times on this Board.
_________________________________

Earlier this week, police in India arrested 70 people for allegedly posing as IRS agents. The posers have been operating a network of call centers for about a year. This is how it worked: people would get a text or voicemail that said they needed to call the IRS, ASAP. If they decided to call back, someone at the call center would apparently introduce themselves (in an American accent) as Christopher or Daniel. Because it doesn’t get more American than that. The scammers would then demand that money be sent to them or else the person on the phone would be arrested. Tax scams have been a major problem in the US in recent years. Apparently a lot of Americans think ‘gullible’ is written on the ceiling, because the call centers that were raided this week have been making as much as $150,000 a day. Indian police said an additional 600 people are under investigation.

@NickNack

I can't believe that people are really that "gullible!"

Re: IRS Telephone Scammers Arrested In India

JustJazzmom — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:56:36 GMT

One scam phone number down, 999 more to go!

Diane from Carpet Cleaning and Rachel lowering your credit debt are next......