WASHINGTON ? The Internal Revenue Service today warned consumers about a sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, throughout the country.

Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver?s license. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

?This scam has hit taxpayers in nearly every state in the country.  We want to educate taxpayers so they can help protect themselves.  Rest assured, we do not and will not ask for credit card numbers over the phone, nor request a pre-paid debit card or wire transfer,? says IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel. ?If someone unexpectedly calls claiming to be from the IRS and threatens police arrest, deportation or license revocation if you don?t pay immediately, that is a sign that it really isn?t the IRS calling.? Werfel noted that the first IRS contact with taxpayers on a tax issue is likely to occur via mail
Other characteristics of this scam include:
Scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers. They generally use common names and surnames to identify themselves.
Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim?s Social Security Number.
Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it?s the IRS calling.
Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.
Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.
After threatening victims with jail time or driver?s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here?s what you should do:
If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue ? if there really is such an issue.
If you know you don?t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you?ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.
If you?ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their ?FTC Complaint Assistant? at FTC.gov.  Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint.
Taxpayers should be aware that there are other unrelated scams (such as a lottery sweepstakes) and solicitations (such as debt relief) that fraudulently claim to be from the IRS.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to be vigilant against phone and email scams that use the IRS as a lure. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information.  This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels. The IRS also does not ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Recipients should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the message. Instead, forward the e-mail to phishing@irs.gov.

More information on how to report phishing scams involving the IRS is available on the genuine IRS website, IRS.gov.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Warns-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam

I just got a call from Mark David today, which I missed, but he left me a voicemail message.  I checked out the number on Google, and found this website. Thanks for letting me know it was a scam, which I was pretty sure it was anyway. I wish I would have been here for his call, as I would have had a few very interesting things to say to him! I hope he calls again!!!!

Report the calls to the real IRS here:

IRS:   http://www.irs.gov/

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Report-Phishing
phishing@irs.gov
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Scams-Consumer-Alerts
http://800notes.com/forum/ta-8c2f64bf2b91fa5/irs-warns-of-telephone-scam

?If you owe federal taxes, or think you might owe taxes, hang up and call the IRS at 800-829-1040. IRS workers can help you with your payment questions.
?If you don?t owe taxes, call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
?You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov. Add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments in your complaint.

These criminals are still at it. They are calling and scamming innocent people. Realizing that IRS and FBI do not have resources to go after these b*****ds, I decided to shame them myself. So, every few days I call them and unload all my vocabulary of four-letter words on them and make fun of their heavy Indian accent. I also publicize their phone number and their names ( "Agents" Mark David and Williams or Wilson) to everybody I know. You can do the same and maybe, just maybe, word of mouth (or email) puts these criminals out of business.

My wife just got this same message and at the end he says, '...and have a blessed day"...LOL really?

I got the same call I owe $2500. Same thing .... Thank you all for taking the time to let others know this is a scam!

Thank you for all your postings. I got a similar message from 201-203-7843 this morning, and the first thing I did was to look up this phone number. What a scam!

I received the exact same call from a "Mark David". I reported this to IRS.

I got the exact same phone call from a "Mark David". I have reported this to IRS to investigate.

I received the same identical phone call from the same number today. My response was the same as Diane's stated above.

I got a vmail from 2012037843 saying they were from the IRS and that this was regarding a legal issue, so I called back, I asked who they were trying to reach, he knew my full name and address which got my attention. "Mark David" claimed he was calling from IRS and advised I willfully defrauded the IRS and owed $1500+. He further explained that they tried to send me the legal affidavit via subpoena but no one was able to receive it and I said well obviously we weren't home and he said that wasn't his problem. I tried to explain there are other forms of communication, they could fax or email the document right then but he insisted in reading this document and advised that the line was recorded for the IRS, so I listened, in a nutshell he claimed that I owed backdated taxes from 2008 to 2012 and needed to pay or fight in court, that it would be cheaper to settle out of court with them (the $1500) than pay lawyers which they emphasized would cost thousands more. He said that if I didn't choose to pay now that he will download my case to the authorities and they will be at my door in 45 minutes if I don't pay on the spot and if we hang up that they wouldn't be able to help me at that point in time claiming that my accounts will be frozen and that they will call immigration and mark my passport somehow so that I couldn't travel. I advised this could be a big misunderstanding, that if we miscalculated our taxes and we owe money to the IRS, sure we will pay but not until I see the "legal affidavit" they were telling me about, I explained that if people owe money you usually see the bill with terms and conditions. I further explained I have never heard the IRS scaring people to pay on the spot and that usually they give time for people to make the payment. At that point he passed me on to "Agent Wilson" who said the same things, but I insisted on getting a copy of this affidavit. When we hung up I did a search on this number and found it was a magic jack number. Unbelievable.

I called the IRS up using the number on their site on the spot, waited patiently on hold for 30 minutes to speak to someone, I explained the fraud attempt and was advised to email phishing@IRS.gov.