WARNING: Area Code 509 Phone Calls Are Dangerous to Your Bank Account. They Are Not from the IRS

I am furious at the moment, so I am apologizing right now just in case I get too carried away with this post.

I received a phone call this morning from this number 509-855-7456.  On the other end of the line was a man who identified himself as an IRS agent.  He then proceeded to tell me that the IRS had filed a collection lawsuit against me for back taxes between the years 2008-2013.  According to him I had been audited for those years and found short, so now I owed the IRS another $3,987, including interest and penalties.  

Now this yo-yo spoke with a heavy Indian accent, but the IRS does have many, many immigrants in its employ so that was not necessarily anything to worry about, so I listened to him.  He told me that a warrant had been issued for my arrest, that my drivers license had been suspended, and that all my bank accounts had been frozen as of this morning.  He identified himself as one Jerry Wilkins, Badge number 961277B and even gave me my "case number."

So...he gave me two choices.  Go to the courthouse in handcuffs or authorize payment of the amount in question.  But I had to do it now or it would be too late to save myself.

When I questioned him a bit, it turns out he had my full name, my home address, my home phone number, and the last four digits of my social security number.  When I told him I would most certainly not authorize access to a bank account for him to collect the debt or wire transfer the amount to him, he turned up the heat even more and began to focus on my arrest for tax evasion, an event he predicted would occur very soon.

I hung up on the jackass, blocked the number, and considered myself fortunate not to have been taken in by the scare tactics these thieves are employing to bilk American taxpayers out of thousands and thousands of dollars.  While speaking to him, I could here one other Indian having a similar conversation with someone else.  I only hope they escaped his clutches.

Now I know that area code 509 is delegated to Washington state, but I don't know that that means the caller is actually sitting in Washington.  With today's technology, I would not be at all surprised if a phone call can be masked via a U.S. area code. I do know that it was possible years ago to do it from Central America because a friend of mine ran an American business from Costa Rica that way and did not want his customers to know that he was calling them from outside the U.S. so all of his phone calls from Costa Rica showed a 713 area code.

Anyway, consider this a warning.  Be very careful about any phone calls you receive from Area Code 509 even if that is your own code.  I suspect this scam is targeting older people, but I do not know that for a fact.  So EVERYBODY should make themselves and all of their friends aware of this kind of thing.

The IRS will NEVER contact you by phone or email in order to let you know that you are being sued by them.  That does not happen.  This sorry SOB did claim that they sent me a registered letter that had been returned as undeliverable and that Federal law prohibited re-mailing of such letters.  They are a sharp bunch of crooks, folks, but they are nothing more than scum of the earth criminals.  

The only thing that bothers me now is the possibility that with all the information they have about me, I am soon to be the victim of identity theft.  Wish me luck on that one.  

Post #2,583