Dozens arrested at India call center linked to IRS scam calls

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

Thank you, @paganbaby ! I've been enjoying it.  Or should I say, "Thank you, Doctor!"?

[paganbaby]

Just now, WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? said:

Thank you, @paganbaby ! I've been enjoying it.  Or should I say, "Thank you, Doctor!"?

Tom Baker is still my favorite Doctor. I'm very old school.

But now I'm feeling the need to watch some Farscape episodes. Maybe the body swap one. Or one of the two Crichtons ones, because who doesn't like double the pleasure?

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

To continue our 2 person thread drift, I think "Kansas" might be my favorite Farscape episode. It's the one where they make it to Earth, but it's the 1980s. Or maybe "Revenge Angel", the Looney Toons episode.

[paganbaby]

On 10/11/2016 at 11:34 PM, WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? said:

To continue our 2 person thread drift, I think "Kansas" might be my favorite Farscape episode. It's the one where they make it to Earth, but it's the 1980s. Or maybe "Revenge Angel", the Looney Toons episode.

The Looney Toons episode was awesome. How about "Crackers Don't Matter," where they have to send Crichton in to stop an alien  because he's got the least developed senses? The one with his ludicrous "Humans are superior!" pronouncement. Some of the best episodes are the ones where they all behave badly, but then learn from it and move on.

Doesn't it turn out in "Kansas" that Crichton lost his virginity to Channa?

Anyone reading this who hasn't seen Farscape, please do yourself a favor and start watching it.

 

[anniebgood]

2 hours ago, paganbaby said:

The Looney Toons episode was awesome. How about "Crackers Don't Matter," where they have to send Crichton in to stop an alien  because he's got the least developed senses? The one with his ludicrous "Humans are superior!" pronouncement. Some of the best episodes are the ones where they all behave badly, but then learn from it and move on.

Doesn't it turn out in "Kansas" that Crichton lost his virginity to Channa?

Anyone reading this who hasn't seen Farscape, please do yourself a favor and start watching it.

 

Nooooooooooooo the Farscape people took over my beloved Stargate SG-1 when Richard Dean Anderson decided to head back to Malibu to raise his daughter. It was never the same again. Sorry. I'd rather watch David Tennant and Catherine Tate. But now I'm going through Droughtlander so I watch reruns. 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

@anniebgood, I loved it when Stargate SG-1 had the episode (the 200th maybe?) where they made fun of other sci-fi shows, including Farscape. 

Spoiler

 

 

[DaisyD]

We watched a lot of SG1. I don't remember that episode though. I'd much rather watch David Tennant any day than pretty much anything else. Peter Capaldi still isn't really doing it for me.

[nokidsmom]

Happy to hear that they are catching up with these people.

We have gotten these calls on and off over the last couple of years.    We get a bunch of them on our answering machine for a few weeks then nothing then they start up again.

Luckily, we have been through an actual IRS audit so knew right off the bat it was a scam, IRS will make initial contact via snail mail, but still it seriously irked me for the sake of those who might not know and get sucked in.

I was tempted to call just to mess with them but then I would be verifying that someone else was on the other end of the line being robocalls. They probably had no idea otherwise and it would just increase the calls.

Back to thread drift, just wanted to express my glee over these scammers getting what they deserve.

[canbritam]

Apparently these guys were the same scammers that were doing the same thing with the CRA in Canada

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-scam-phone-calls-india-1.3815530

[Shouldabeenacowboy]

With the 2018 tax season now open, a reminder to beware of the IRS scam calls. The IRS does not call you as a first point of contact and most certainly does not demand immediate payment, even if you owe taxes!!! Recently, these scammers have started providing a (fake) employee ID and case number, and when you try to interject in their "script", they get really mad and try to scare you/silence you. Don't fall for it!

I got one such scam call recently, must say I had been waiting for it to troll the heck out of them! They were so mad! ?

Here is how it went: they called and said they were from the IRS, and they were investigating a tax delinquency claim against me, in conjunction with drug trafficking and other criminal activities. Normally I would hang up to a scammer, but I had a slow day at work, and could use some fun. I figured the more time they spent on the phone with me trolling them, the less time they could spend scamming some poor innocent person who'd fall for it.

They asked to confirm my name (gave them a fake one), the last 4 digits of my social (gave them a fake one) and which state I obtained it (fake one). Then they made up this story about my car being found in Florida with drugs in it, and asked to confirm the state where my drivers' license was issued. I told them I never drove and never owned a car. This threw them off for a second, but they bounced back with the tax delinquency. 

That's when the fun began. I strung them along and engaged in a surreal conversation, throwing back at them questions peppered with legalese and tax-speak for each one of their questions, without answering. Totally disoriented them, they had no idea what I was talking about. They are clearly following a script, and so did I. I was "escalated" to the investigating agent and the supervisor of the investigating agent, but for every one of their questions, I kept pounding them with more questions. 

At the end they got really mad and started screaming at me, but I kept my cool. Finally, they got so exasperated that they demanded I "just pay" them for my supposed tax delinquency with a WalMart gift card. That's when I totally lost it, and started laughing so hard that someone knocked at my office door and asked if I was OK. So I put them on speakerphone for my colleagues to hear, and told them they are pure scum and they are not even that good at it. I said they don't know who they are messing with (LOL), and I would report this conversation and their phone number to the IRS, to Treasury, and to the FBI. By the way, if you get the scam calls, there are ways to report them to the above - please do!

I spent almost an hour on the phone, a very entertaining hour for me - less so for them.

[nokidsmom]

@Shouldabeenacowboy loved your story of trolling the scammers.  In recent months I have been entertaining myself watching Youtube videos of people trolling all kinds of IRS scammers and posting the vids.  Some of them are absolutely hilarious.  

 

 

[Flossie]

Ever get the one where some guy screams that he works for Microsoft and your computer is calling them for help because it's being attacked by a virus?  The only way to save the world is for you to allow them to take over your computer and scrub the offending virus immediately.  Make sure you have a credit card on hand because it'll cost at least a hundred dollars, but I bet if I'd let them do that they'd "find" more problems that would cost more money to resolve.  I've lost track of how many times some guy in badly accented English is just crying trying to save my computer.

[Ozlsn]

I had one where some poor woman was trying to convince me the Australian Tax Office didn't have a website. 

[Chocolatedefrauded]

Ah, I remember the “your computer needs help” scam. I just kept saying “no, it doesn’t. It’s not turned on.” The guy got so frustrated with me and I finally said “nice try! Bye.”

The best call was a drunk guy at 1 am yelling “Tell your husband to stop sleeping with my wife!” I told him it was not possible because my husband was right next to me. He got more irate.

Originally I thought the caller was trying to stir up trouble in a marriage. Recently i’ve learned there are 3 other guys in our area with the same name so he probably just called the wrong guy.

[Penny]

Years ago when we lived in another city, we started getting late night calls asking if so and so was available for a date. I would get irritated and hang up. Then one day I said, "Sure, she will be right over." The calls stopped after that. 

[DaisyD]

I've gotten the Microsoft calls. They went on for years. I tried everything from telling them I only run DOS to telling them I don't own a computer. Finally I asked which computer and they said the one belonging to Daisy Maiden Name. I just started laughing and told them that person hadn't existed in 15 years and she never owned a computer. That stopped them. I don't even know why they had my number associated with my maiden name. It was weird.

[formergothardite]

For a while last year I kept getting calls saying I owned money and if I didn't pay it the police would come arrest me the next day. I said "Okay. I'll let my lawyer know so he can be here when they come." They would hang up on me. They eventually stopped calling. 

[CTRLZero]

One time I had a scammer on the line and I just started punching random numbers on the phone pad, which made a beeping tone.  The scammer asked what the beeping was, and I said, "oh, that's just the tracer."  That ended that call.

Sometimes I just left the phone on the kitchen counter and went outside to sun myself while they babbled on.  Who knows how long it took them to figure it out.

Hanging up is the best policy, but sometimes I just want to toy with them a little. 

[Coconut Flan]

I used to have a cat who liked to talk on the phone.  Telemarketers and nuisance calls were much better than annoying the family.  Cat learned to hit speed dial and speaker phone to fill the need if I didn't provide it. My mother was the one usually called and she wasn't very impressed.  So I'd call the cat over and put the phone down and laugh as the cat responded to the questions.  

[47of74]

5 hours ago, DaisyD said:

I've gotten the Microsoft calls. They went on for years. I tried everything from telling them I only run DOS to telling them I don't own a computer. Finally I asked which computer and they said the one belonging to Daisy Maiden Name. I just started laughing and told them that person hadn't existed in 15 years and she never owned a computer. That stopped them. I don't even know why they had my number associated with my maiden name. It was weird.

I'd tell them I was running some weird ass open source system like plan 9, DragonFly BSD, or Slackware and see if they even know what the fornicate those are. 

I haven't gotten any of those calls.  If I did I deal enough with off shore support during my working time so filling my free time up with dealing with off shore scammers is not my idea of a good time.  I'd tell them to fornicate off and hang up on them right away.

[zeebaneighba]

12 hours ago, Flossie said:

Ever get the one where some guy screams that he works for Microsoft and your computer is calling them for help because it's being attacked by a virus?  The only way to save the world is for you to allow them to take over your computer and scrub the offending virus immediately.  Make sure you have a credit card on hand because it'll cost at least a hundred dollars, but I bet if I'd let them do that they'd "find" more problems that would cost more money to resolve.  I've lost track of how many times some guy in badly accented English is just crying trying to save my computer.

They always seem baffled when I tell them I do not even HAVE any computers running MS software.

[littlemommy]

I got a call from someone saying there was a problem with an online account and I was very curt and rude and—

It was legit. My husband had two account with an online music store and they wanted to know if he wanted to consolidate them and I had been the worst kind of asshole to this poor guy. I apologized profusely for my rudeness and he laughed. 

999 times out of 1000 it’s a scam, but that ONE time...

[libgirl2]

 A couple of years ago, I get a call that my Mastercard has some fraudulent charges on it. I hung up right away and called the number on my card. It was a legit call, the operator confirmed it. I still would hang up and call the actual number anytime. 

[Cartmann99]

12 hours ago, Flossie said:

Ever get the one where some guy screams that he works for Microsoft and your computer is calling them for help because it's being attacked by a virus?  The only way to save the world is for you to allow them to take over your computer and scrub the offending virus immediately.  Make sure you have a credit card on hand because it'll cost at least a hundred dollars, but I bet if I'd let them do that they'd "find" more problems that would cost more money to resolve.  I've lost track of how many times some guy in badly accented English is just crying trying to save my computer.

One of those idiots called my mom years ago. She listened politely and then told him that she didn't even own a computer, so how in the world was her nonexistent computer contacting him?

We once lived in an apartment complex where another resident had the same first and last name as my husband. We'd get his mail sometimes, and also calls from the various collection agencies. I'd always tell them they had the wrong person, and they'd usually accept that and get off the phone.

One time the collection agency guy did the "I'm a lawyer" bit to try and scare us into paying that guys debts. I tried to explain that this guy just happened to have the same name as my husband, but we didn't know him, and we weren't responsible for his bills. So, this guy gets really snarky with me, and ends up saying that I have to know him, because I live in the same house as him. 

I explain that we live in an apartment complex, gave him the name of our complex, and said that if he did a search on our address without the apartment number, he'd find that quite a few people appear to live with us. I told him I found it strange that a lawyer didn't know about the existence of apartment complexes.   I guess he did a search and found the apartment complex's website which showed their address, as he got off the phone right after that, and never called back. ?

[ViolaSebastian]

I've gotten the "your car was smuggling drugs across the US/Mexico border" call before. At the time, my car was in my mother's name because I'd inherited it from her and was lazy about getting the title moved over. When I told them this, they were still persistent. I was like "I have certain rights here and you're going to need to send a warrant if this is going to go any further." All he said was "ma'am?"