He also called my MIL. This was to our home, for my wife, and asking for her by her maiden name, which she uses only professionally.
The first time he started his spiel, a lot was recorded on my machine before I picked up. Accent, and unfamiliar with pronunciation of garden variety American name. Says he’s from a criminal investigation agency named, surprisingly, CI Agency, and that a warrant is out for her arrest from the IRS because of unpaid taxes, and they can help me. Couple weeks later I get a call from a different voice (the whole thing went straight to the answering machine) from “the IRS,” that indeed they’re coming for me, and I should speak to so and so.
On the first call he asked for my wife, and I told him I was mortified, frightened for her and for me, wanted to keep it from her, and whether he would take a check or if I should give him my credit card number. Then something came up, and I had to regretfully hang up until I called him back. I have his number (which of course could be bogus).
He’ll be back, I’m pretty sure. My MIL, who died recently, was an illiterate Auschwitz survivor who never lost her terror of police and a devouring state, and she called us in a panic. So fuck this guy.
Any ideas on even the slimmest chance of messing up his day?
if they’re calling from overseas, nothing the feds can, or will, do. When we were repeatedly called for months on end from Jamaican scammers, nobody would help us. Fortunately, eventually, they gave up.
The FBI will not get involved unless there is a loss of over $10,000. Things like scams on a credit card that the bank does not hold you accountable for do not count as a loss to you. The feds work with the bank as the bank often has dozens or even hundreds of items of card fraud that all obviously tie to the same criminal.
I called the FBI regarding exactly one situation in all of the internet scam victims I have crossed paths with and that guy was asking if we could reformat a computer to destroy evidence of him making an illegal purchase, took down his info recognized the address and called the FBI and passed it off to them. (the address was a minor IRS office, I only knew what it was because my mom used to work there).
Ah, sadly the answer is probably ‘nothing’ then. I guess you could waste his time but at the same time that carries risk, not least wasting your own time rather than hanging up immediately on him.
Here is a webpage from the IRS website with their advice about this scam. They offer the option of filing a complaint with the FTC.
But I think little will happen if you file a complaint. The government is already aware of these scammers and they’re mostly overseas anyhow, so little will happen to them.
I used to frequent a forum which supported people who baited the Nigerian scammers. The objective was to waste as much of their time as possible and the ultimate was to get them to travel to meet their supposed victim. If it was to another country - even better.
There were several long threads which took several weeks before the scammers gave up and it was an interesting and sometimes hilarious insight into the scammer mentality and organisation.
Eventually though, it began to get more dangerous. Some of the baiters went to the length of using a ‘burn’ phone as a contact, but in two cases the criminals actually had people over here and made physical threats.
It takes a lot of perseverance, time and effort to fool these people successfully as they are well used to it. I am amazed that I still get emails from Nigerians wanting help to get cash out of their country - hard to believe that people still fall for it. The IRS/HMRC scam is the latest in a long line - the usual one here is to say that there is a rebate due but some cash is needed up front to free it up.
Remember that to them, any response at all is considered a success - it means a ‘live’ contact that can be pursued at some future date even if this one fails.
Go over to a scam baiting website and ask for advice. Most will tell you not to involve your real name. Stay safe.
I haven’t followed this for a while, but 419 eater used to be the preeminent baiting website. That’s where I would go to for customized advice. They used to set newbies up with mentors. http://www.419eater.com/
At one time the scam baiter was a little edgier, but they had a change in management some years back and I haven’t lurked there since. Ah! I see they have a nice slideshow on the front page. Check it out first. TheScamBaiter.org
The police (meaning all law enforcement authorities) don’t care. Call 911, and they will give you the address of some vague federal agency, which will not even acknowledge that you filled out their standard form on line. You won’t even get a form email saying thanks for notifying us.
It’s hard to get the police involved when nothing has been lost yet. I got a scam letter by snail mail a few years ago and took it to the post office. They suggested I go to the police. I did, and they suggested I throw the letter away. I did an on-line search and found a federal agency that handled such cases and made a report in which I said I would save the original letter as evidence. They never asked for it.
In the OP’s case, it’s likely the scammer is in another country. If that’s the case, the local police won’t be able to do anything about it. If you figured out what country the scammer is in, you could try to get action out of that country’s police. I doubt you’d get anywhere.