
Dozens Charged with Scamming 15,000 Victims Through Fake IRS Calls - happy-go-lucky
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/27/499585590/justice-department-charges-61-people-in-fake-irs-phone-call-conspiracy
======
sandGorgon
So the story leaves out a lot of the interesting details.. but has been in thr
headlines in India.

It was a massive, coordinated operation by the Mumbai police teams who
discovered this by accident. Almost 200 policemen took part in the exercise,
but most of them didnt know about the mission (to prevent leaks).

Almost an Infernal Affairs like operation -
[http://m.rediff.com/news/special/how-the-rs-500-crore-
scam-w...](http://m.rediff.com/news/special/how-the-rs-500-crore-scam-was-
busted/20161014.htm)

~~~
happy-go-lucky
A company of 700 people that are morally corrupt and seemingly unapologetic.

------
ourmandave
_Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot Suspicious
Calls_

[https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/scam-phone-calls-
continue-i...](https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/scam-phone-calls-continue-irs-
identifies-five-easy-ways-to-spot-suspicious-calls)

Things the IRS will never do:

1\. Call to demand immediate payment, nor will we call about taxes owed
without first having mailed you a bill..

2\. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question
or appeal the amount they say you owe.

3\. Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a
prepaid debit card.

4\. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

5\. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have
you arrested for not paying.

~~~
ben_jones
However the IRS will soon be contracting private debt collection agencies [1]
which may use some of those methods.

[1]:[https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/new-private-debt-
collection...](https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/new-private-debt-collection-
program-to-begin-next-spring-irs-to-contract-with-four-agencies-taxpayer-
rights-protected)

------
nradov
Similar scams are also going on with utility companies and the level of
activity has definitely increased this year. The spammers spoof Caller ID for
a utility company such as PG&E, then tell the mark that their electricity and
gas will be cut off unless they pay a past-due bill. They try to hit me at
least once a week.

[https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page...](https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20160407_pge_warns_customers_of_increased_scams_during_tax_and_election_season)

~~~
techsupporter
> The spammers spoof Caller ID for a utility company such as PG&E, then tell
> the mark that their electricity and gas will be cut off unless they pay a
> past-due bill.

This is one of the myriad of times where being poor is expensive. I _know_
this scam wouldn't work on me today. Why? My utility bills are paid
automatically through credit card charges made by the utility. I get e-mails
every month or two when the charges are made. If I don't see an e-mail around
the usual time, I can log in and investigate before the bill is past due. Even
if the charge messes up for some reason, I have the money handy to pay both
the utility charge and the late payment fee if it's my error.

Someone who doesn't have as much doesn't have those choices. I remember when I
made far less than I do now and, yes, it's entirely plausible that I would get
a call from the light company demanding payment or they'll have the person
standing next to my meter go ahead with the disconnection. So I _would have_
fallen for that scam in the past because it was plausible. It sucks that
scammers prey on people who are in these kinds of vulnerable positions.

------
excitom
I received several of these annoying calls. I knew it was a scam but I was
amazed at their brazenness; how can they get away with claiming to be from the
IRS and demand money? Good to hear they have been charged.

~~~
trprog
>how can they get away with claiming to be from the IRS and demand money?

I feel like these sorts of scams increasingly involve calling/emailing people
in one country from a different country. This is presumably because
enforcement within any single country is becoming more and more effective. By
targeting people in other countries you create a situation where multiple
police forces need to cooperate which presumably means you are able to operate
for longer before arrests start happening.

------
chillingeffect
I'm so glad. I was one of the people they tried to target. I tried to keep
them on the line and extract as much info as I could and reported it to the
IRS. I feel bad for the people they actually got money from and I hope they
get it back.

~~~
buckbova
I honestly haven't met anyone that WASN'T called with an IRS scam this year.
It's amazing how they were able to call so many numbers and it lasted so long.

~~~
komali2
My primary number has been a google voice number with a weird area code for
the last 4 years, and I have gotten maybe 4 robotcalls in that time.

------
jasondc
It's a pretty effective scam for a few reasons:

-You call THEM back, which immediately establishes trust (since you called them!) and makes it easier for you to fork over information/payment

-It's pretty scary to hear that the IRS is suing you, since almost everyone thinks they may have done something on a past tax filing that wasn't completely correct

~~~
danieltillett
It is effective because nobody ever knows if they own the IRS money or not.
When you have a tax system like the USA it is impossible to know what you owe.

------
pavel_lishin
$300 million? Hot damn. I wonder if they would have gotten away with it if
they'd stopped when they were merely wealthy instead of millionaires.

------
outericky
I got several of these calls. Transcript of the voicemail. It's comical. Sad
that some fell for it. I'm just glad the local cops didn't show up and take me
into custody.

>>>>> Mission team of IRS we have just received a notification regarding your
tax filings from the headquarters which will get expired in the next 24
working hours and once again expired after that you will be taken under
custody by the local cops as there are for serious allegations pressed on your
name at this moment we would request you to get back to us so that we can
discuss about this case before taking any legal action against you

~~~
afandian
That sounds like deliberate word salad. Maybe the effect is to hit with you as
many words as possible and effect some kind of change in brain state like
whatever it it is that Derren Brown [0] does.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown)

------
aresant
Here's the source complaint & indictment

[https://www.justice.gov/usao-
sdtx/file/905837/download](https://www.justice.gov/usao-
sdtx/file/905837/download)

------
Justin_K
Couldn't we spend less than $300M on our telco infrastructure to prevent shit
like this? Black listing rented phone numbers, preventing caller ID spoofing,
etc...

~~~
reddytowns
Yea, let's perpetrate a scam like this to raise money to prevent scams like
this from occurring.

Or do you think the money is going to come from somewhere else? Why should I
have to pay for the ever increasing coddling of the American public?

~~~
Justin_K
Troll

~~~
reddytowns
No, just someone with a different opinion than you.

------
fabiandesimone
Here's a video of said calls:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVFcizDwqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVFcizDwqw)

~~~
bdrool
Another one, where they tried to scam a tax professional:

[https://youtu.be/poFAzDCGLrI?t=36s](https://youtu.be/poFAzDCGLrI?t=36s)

------
tmaly
I am still waiting for them to prosecute the fake business loan scams. I get
calls daily with the message that I have been approved for a 250K business
loan.

------
bluedino
Lol. The IRS doesn't call you when they demand money, they just empty your
bank account or come to your house and take all your shit.

~~~
ams6110
No they don't do that either. At least not as their first move.

------
ninv
"The scammers have "done their research" using publicly available information,
including sites like Facebook, he said. They identify vulnerabilities to
exploit."

Stop posting personal info on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. Best way to
keep in touch is Whatsapp and any other personal messenger app.

~~~
duskwuff
> Best way to keep in touch is Whatsapp…

…which is owned by Facebook, and shares account information with the Facebook
Platform?

[http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/25/12638698/whatsapp-to-
start...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/25/12638698/whatsapp-to-start-
sharing-user-data-with-facebook)

~~~
rdtsc
Are you suggesting these people work for Whatsapp?

You could make the news with that kind of info.

~~~
duskwuff
Not at all. Just pointing out the inconsistency in recommending that people
avoid social media sites like Facebook... and use a tool that's owned by
Facebook, and which shares account information with it, as a replacement.

~~~
rdtsc
But it is a different situation. The implication is people posted on Facebook
and it wasn't Facebook who ran the IRS scheme by reading the data on the
backend, the data was shared by the users. WhatsApp doesn't work like
Facebook's main product, it is more like SMS for example.

So the ownership of Facebook is irrelevant in this case.

Now perhaps it is possible to argue if someone hacked into Facebook to steal
all data. But I don't think that's the case here.

