Beware! I.R.S. Phone Scam Afoot!

[Worf101]

I was out and about this afternoon, when I got home my son reported that the I.R.S. called with a "final notice" demanding I pay an overdue tax bill. I'm pretty savvy, I have my returns professionally prepared by the same accountant for almost 20 years so I smelled scam right away. I did a quick Google search and it seems this scam is running rampant right now. They've already scammed some unsuspecting folks out of 5 plus Million dollars. Fact is the I.R.S. never calls "out of the blue". They send you a registered letter. I'm sure they're preying on Seniors and folks who might owe back taxes. I reported the scam immediately to the Treasury Dept. They left a phone number but my brain-dead son never wrote it down. I'd a called em back if he had and played with these fools. Just a heads up, they may even have scored the last four digits of your SS number. Even so don't fall for it.

Worf

[Mr Peabody]

You are correct sir, and there are more than one out there. Anyone wanting info or to report go to: www.TIGTA.gov to report look for the link that says something like "IRS impersonation scam"

Not only are they scamming but also phishing so never ever give them any info about yourself at all, and as Worf stated they may have some impressive information on you already. That's why folks need to be cautious on social media what you post and don't allow it open to the public. Although hacking seems to be all too easy these days.

[Smokey]

Anybody that have dealt with IRS know that IRS does not do their business over the phone. One can’t even get thru the wait on phone to talk to an IRS agent, let alone them calling you.

As matter of fact in the last tax season, forty percent of calls trying to reach an agent went unanswered by the IRS.

[Mr Peabody]

The IRS brings in over 90% of the country's revenue yet congress cut their budget to the lowest in years, I can't remember how far back the statistic gave. That's congressional logic, hobble the agency that feeds you. Now already under funded let's dump in their lap the implementing and managing the payment/repayment & penalty portions of the Healthcare Act and allow them to continue struggling with an epidemic of Indentity Theft and fraud. IRS only gives basic tax law help over the phone now from Jan. to 4/15 then after that you are on your own. IRS is only allowed to help if you receive a notice or have some other issue not related to tax law. Tax law being, "can I do this or take this" as it relates to preparing your return. Not even which form to use.

Obviously there's stress on the agency as to what services have higher priority and how to conduct them underfunded but ultimately the public gets the brunt of the burden.

I've read that the severe budget cuts to IRS is republicans way of punishment for the issue where they were slow to approve 501c status on conservative organizations applications. I've never seen if that was proven to be true but sometimes actions of the one accused says a lot. However, under funding the agency would seem to only make the innocent pay any penalty. In addition, when republicans battle cry is the deficit, how much logic is it to cut of the revenue stream and not protect your wallet from thieves?

[Smokey]

Obviously there's stress on the agency as to what services have higher priority and how to conduct them underfunded but ultimately the public gets the brunt of the burden.


That is pretty much truth as is evident from what happened below:

I fill out my own taxes and a had hard time filling out new health care law form with my taxes. I went downtown to IRS office for help and after waiting 45 minutes in waiting room finally got a chance to sit down and talk to an IRS agent about new health care form.

So he help me out filling the new forms.

He got stuck right in middle of filing out the form as numbers didn’t came out right. So he called his supervisor to take a look to see what he is doing wrong. And after going throu several handbook, the supervisor couldn’t even figure out why numbers they calculated don’t come out right.

So they brought in the third IRS agent and she finally figured out what was wrong and filled out the form correctly. It took them two hours and three IRS agents to figure out the new health care forms that have to be filled out with income tax forms.

So I was thinking to myself that if IRS agent can’t figure the new tax form with all the sources they have in their disposal, how can they expect an ordinary citizen to figure it out. So complication are abound.

And cutting IRS budget don‘t help in that matter either.

[Mr Peabody]

Yeah, the forms were all new and hit fast right at filing time. Luckily you got help, phone assistors weren't supposed to do the forms over the phone, just answer questions on certain lines or other basics.

You may not remember down the road but if you need help sometime let me know and I will see if I can help.

[TheHills44060]

My dad just got hit with one of these calls over the weekend. When he told me I thought of this thread haha.