We saw on the news a while ago that there was another scam going around involving the IRS. Soon after we got two phone messages on Art's cellphone purporting to be from the IRS.
This was the text message on the cellphone:
This was the text message on the cellphone:
A voicemail was received from (352) 419-2473 on Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 11:40 AM HST.
A recording of your message has also been attached.
When we played the recording a very authoritative sounding woman's voice told us that there was a
lawsuit pending against us by the IRS. We were supposed to call them
back right away.
I sent a text to my son-in-law, daughter and son. We figured it was scam. My son-in-law was first to text back telling us it was a scam. My daughter then called us sounding nervous that we might have fallen for it. She told us that if we ever get an unfamiliar call, we should reverse look up the number on the White Pages website before calling them back.
We looked up the number and found the scam had already been reported on the White Pages. This is the link to the White Pages reverse look up.
All I can say is... Be very careful!
Happens here too. Our version of the IRS has let it be know that they don't do email. Always regular mail. I suppose that appliers to phone calls too, but I hadn't though about it until now.
ReplyDeleteIf the IRS has to contact you re your taxes they will ALWAYS do it by mail....not phone.
ReplyDeleteI had heard about that one. We just do NOT EVER answer our phones (house or cell) IF we don't recognize the number... IF it is someone important, they will leave a message and we will call them back. There are just TOO many dishonest people out there trying to scam us all. Disgusting, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Betsy
The next call they give a name and say we must call him immediately. I laughed and hung up.
ReplyDeleteAnother one: yesterday I got two letters from Portugal telling me that there had been a mix-up with the $4M lottery and my ID was actually the winner. The man who had the ticket could not claim his prize without my help. Hahahaha.
ReplyDeletesomething new everyday in all kinds of places-phones, Facebook, emails, etc!
ReplyDeleteThis is what we got the other day I suppose. Something about being federal and charges to be brought against us. I hug up. I figure if the federal government wants to send a caregiver out to care for Bob and empty catheter bags more power to them, otherwise I don't have time to mess with them.
ReplyDeleteThey are doing a CRA scam like this in Canada too, it came on the news
ReplyDeleteYesterday, 3 of us in the office got the robocalls on our cellphones. We all knew it was BS, but I want to wring those people's necks.
ReplyDeleteSo this must be something that's hitting everybody in the islands, hunh? How do they do this anyway?
DeleteI have "won" millions of dollars so many times from Readers Digest. I block those callers right after I hang up on them.
ReplyDeleteyep, I've heard of this. They tried my 89 year old mom recently. Thankfully she had been made aware of the scam. So evil and sad.
ReplyDeleteNext time they call claim to be Canadian and keep the gag going until they bore out.
ReplyDeleteThere's a scam a minute. we had something similar here with our income tax.
ReplyDeleteWe got this same thing too. And we also got another one that was similar and the caller said that the Sheriff would be serving a warrant on our doorstep if we didn't give them our credit card. I remember I said, "Well, bring 'em on cause I am NOT giving you my credit card!" Not that I answered the call, this is just what I said to the answering machine! HA!
ReplyDeleteYes, we get this kind of stuff all the time. Another frequent one is someone informing us that our computer needs repair.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's one way to create jobs - just get on the phone and rip people off.
I got one of those last week and the woman sounded very authoritative. I looked up the number in White Pages and found that it was a scam. Glad you didn't fall for it, but I feel for all those people who are fooled by it. :-(
ReplyDeleteI constantly get e-mails from people telling me I have won a million dollars. What a mess! I always just delete those and block them but next week there will be another try from a different scammer.
ReplyDeleteSeems like everyone is vulnerable these days. Glad you avoided a problem!
ReplyDeleteI don't even pick up the phone if I don't know who the caller is. Doesn't your landline have caller ID?
ReplyDeleteOur landline does. The voice message was on Art's cellphone.
DeleteI don't answer unknown numbers and usually those scammers don't leave a message.
ReplyDeleteBlessings......
ReplyDeleteGlad you were wise enough not to follow through. unfortunately there are those who make their livelihood preying on the unsuspecting.
Been getting the IRS phone scam periodically for several years. Dtr in VA gets them, too, in cycles. In the beginning they were live and afterward I reported on IRS web site or maybe it was to U.S. Treasury. Now they're robocalls with the latest being 5 calls last week -- they escalate from notifying me to threatening with police to arrest. If I answer the phone I hang up on them after i hear them say IRS, other times they go to recording. FBI or whoever hasn't been very successful terminating them. Initially was accented English, later has been regular woman or male English speaker. Latest threat calls are male English speaker with deep voice sounding tough to intimate he's a police officer, I guess. I wrote a blog piece within the past year cautioing about phone scams I've had in recent rears including both grandpa and grandma scams.. Was told about some local people who lost money on these grandparent scams. Got the grandma scam again a few months ago, so guess that one will repeat over time, too. So far haven't had the utility scam people come to my door, but wont fall for those either. What's next?
ReplyDelete