Another Scam, Someone called my home number; his name is Mark Watson form the IRS @ (206) 436-4774., claiming that I owe money for prior year tax return. I need to pay him immediately, or I will be arrested?.

Message left on our phone. Caller sounded Asian, could not understand him, had heavy accent and did not speak well at all. Claims to be calling from some type of govt. crime investigation. States he has an arrest warrant, mentions a bunch of [?case numbers?] and something about Homeland Security. Has very poor and limited knowledge of the English language. Says if we could show him some kind of proof of something (didn't understand that part at all) there would not be an arrest. Clearly a scam. He was calling from a Washington, D.C. area code.

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

Foreign sounding individual called protending to be a federal agent representing the IRS. Giving a badge # and arrest
warrent #  and threatening that I would be arrested and all my properties confiscated, if I did not give a 4% penalty to the
amount of $870 for some unmentioned tax mistake. Constantly repeating if you hang up the phone you will be arrested.
Obviously a scam I hung up. Hope the authorities are reading this, they are posing as Federal agents.
 

This damn guy ( with heavy accent ) called  me saying i owe the irs money and that if i didnt pay i would be arrested. I asked him for his company name, phone number, supervisor name etc. he kept ignoring and saying that i owe money and that they didnt have a supervisor. Finally i said come and arrest me bc i know this a scam. he hung up on me. Then I called that number back and someone else picked up and hung up the phone. phone # 202-241-8978  

another obvious scam. caller with accent and very poor connection as well as lots of background talking. could not understand the message at all. from what I read here it's and IRS threat scam. Hope the cops get these people soon.

PERSON CALLING HIMSELF EDWARD SMITH POSES A GOVERNMENT AGENT, SPEAKING WITH A HEAVY ACCENT AND ON A POOR CONNECTION.  SAYS THAT I WILL BE ARRESTED WITHIN 25 MINUTES UNLESS I PAY $914 FOR VIOLATION ON MY TAX RETURN.  WHEN I CONFRONT HIM WITH THIS ONLINE SEARCH RESULTS HE HANGS UP.

DO NOT HEAR THESE PEOPLE OUT, OBVIOUS SCAM

Once I told that FOB, that  his balls should be chopped and fed to his mom, the phone message has changed to a magic jack voice mail.

This A**LE should either be put in jail, or deport his a** to where he came from.

They called and asked for my Step Dad, and claim to be from IRS.
I said that I was NOT him, and they could NOT talk to him... *(as he passed away 3 years ago).
And they thought I was pretending not to be him, and said they will call the police and have me arrested.
This people are Pathetic! Lie and Cheat people!!
I wish I could Trace the call and have THEM arrested!!!!
That people do this to other people makes me SICK!

as in his I meant my husband. Who are theses people and why would they do it... To get money?

They called and the guy had an accent and pretended to represent the IRS and said something about error in taxes and a warrant for his arrest. he called the police department and said disregard.  Don't listen to these people it's all a big scam!!

Just got the same call saying they was with the IRS and that someone filed a fraudulent a tax return using my husband SS # and there was a warrant for his arrest and of course they wanted his ID information. I called and reported to my local police and they confirmed it is a scam. I was told that IRS will never call you they always use the US Mail.

Asian accent, hard to understand stated he was from CID or IRS. Asked to speak to his supervisor. Another Asia accent just as hard to understand. I hung up.

they told me to pay 5000$ or they come 45 minutes later with the police at my doorstep to arrest my husband my children started crying i asked him for a translator since i couldn't understand him he told me to wait i did then i checked online and  saw that it was a scam and hung up but he keeps calling now i hope someone will stop him.

I just got a similar call.  Caller ID showed it was from (202) 241-2083 and like others have reported, they claimed to be from the criminal investigation department of the IRS however, their accent made it nearly impossible to understand most of what they were trying to say.

I knew I had no IRS issues, and was pretty sure this was a scam, but I played along for a while just to see if I could gain some extra information to report on them with.  When I asked to speak with someone who speaks with an English accent, they first refused.  I kept insisting on it, but also making them believe I was falling for it in hopes they might slip up.

He finally put someone else on the line, but the new person still spoke with the same accent, which only confirmed to my satisfaction that this was a scam.  But it also made it nearly impossible to understand what they were even asking me to do, other than to call (202) 241-8978.

This number is trying to pretend they are the IRS and that you owe money!   Big scam!!!!  

I got the same call from that f......k a**

This scamer called me telling me I owe irs $2113 and the police will be at my door step to arrest me

I got the same phone call from these Asian people with Indian/Pakistani /Nepali/.... that area of the world dialect and extremely hard to understand , telling me that I was under a criminal investigation issued by IRS. They wanted from me all my personal info and pay them $4,000 that I owed IRS. After refusing to give all my personal, they threatened my by sending law enforcement authorities and Homeland Security. I reported these calls to the local authorities. What a creeps. These kind people need to be hunted down and put to jail.

got this too, 2/20/14 7:25pm est

my brother picked up asked for me, said i was under investigation, my brother couldnt hear him well then the dude hung up on him   i hope he calls back

I got called from (202) 241-8978
DC, USA
They told me they from IRS
And pay us $2200 if not they will arrest me

I got a similar message from this numbe 202-241-8978, it is a scam., please can some one stop it,

I got a similar message from this number while I was away. The caller has a very heavy foreign accent, so it was very difficult to understand. When I called back to know what's about, no one answered. This number is landline. He should be caught and stopped!!!

Scam. Caller claims to be an agent form the IRS criminal investigation division. Needless to say, he is not. Scam looks to be similar to the one described here: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Warns-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam

I got the same call. The person spoke very poor english. I was told that I was under federal investigation by the IRS This is nothing but a scam

I just got the same call..I didn't answer because it was unknown number. But they told me the same thing and that if I didn't respond the local pd would come get me..but when I called the number back no one answered.

This Asian person called and ask for some one I do not know. I advised him that not only is this the wrong number for that person but he is extremely difficult to understand as his English is not so good. He then said that my address is under investigation by the IRS and that I am the person he is looking for. Then he asked my name. I wouldn't give it so he says " Who the F*** are you?" I hung up. This is a scam or something because the IRS would never speak to some one that way.