After recovering from a bout with the flu I attended continuing education yesterday with the Nevada Society of Enrolled Agents. We had a presentation from a Special Agent with TIGTA (the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration). One of the most interesting things he mentioned was that TIGTA is now robocalling IRS scammers, preventing them from calling out. (They’re also conducting lots of investigations of these scammers and have had some successes. Unfortunately, this is a lot like killing weeds: You get rid of one and two more pop up.)
There’s at least one individual who created something where he has been calling IRS scammers; by flooding their phone lines it prevents them from calling out. I do need to warn you that if you do this yourself you may be violating the law. Luckily, there’s no problem with TIGTA making these robocalls to block the scammers.
Here’s a YouTube video from “Project Mayhem.” (There is some NSFW language.) The advice from Project Mayhem is correct: If you get one of these calls, hang up. If they claim to be from a reputable company (and it’s someone you’re doing business with), hang up, look up their phone number, and you call them. If it’s from the IRS and you think you owe money to the IRS, check with your tax professional or call the IRS up yourself (800-829-1040).
Tags: IRS.Telephone.Scam, TIGTA