# The Income Tax/Criminal Charges Phone Scam Can't Be Legal, Can It? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 6, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542 "2018-06-06T14:28:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/41 "2018-06-09T00:47:59Z")
> [@Qwakkeddup](#): > > Need to forward all these scams and fraud calls to State and Federal govt. reps. Then something would get done about it. How does one forward a phone call? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/42 "2018-06-09T02:38:50Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Yeah, they can land a man on the moon, why can’t they catch anonymous scammers? Do you have any idea how many area codes there aren’t? Moon landing, pshaaaaw. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/43 "2018-06-09T04:37:02Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > How does one forward a phone call? Check with your service provider. But telling the scammer you are forwarding the call to the FBI might work better. In any case, the scammers would have hung up long before the forwarded call will go through. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/44 "2018-06-09T05:42:26Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Check with your service provider. But telling the scammer you are forwarding the call to the FBI might work better. In any case, the scammers would have hung up long before the forwarded call will go through. But that wouldn’t stop the person that’s going to call you 2 hours later. It’s not like all the scammers maintain a common database of people who [probably won’t] report them to the authorities. Besides, even the US based ones have shown time and time again they’re not threatened by the FCC or FBI or police etc and the Indian based ones have literally nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s considered a legit job over there. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/45 "2018-06-11T22:41:55Z")
People are now trying this one [door to door.](https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/victoria-police-warn-public-after-cra-scammer-threatens-woman-with-handcuffs-1.3967379) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/46 "2018-07-24T16:11:05Z")
Update: [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-breaks-up-fake-i-r-s-phone-scam-operation/ar-BBL0jmj?ocid=ob-fb-enus-280](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-breaks-up-fake-i-r-s-phone-scam-operation/ar-BBL0jmj?ocid=ob-fb-enus-280) \*With stiff sentences for 21 conspirators last week in the United States and a round of indictments in India, the Justice Department says it has broken up what appeared to be the nation’s first large-scale, multinational telephone fraud operation. Over four years, more than 15,000 victims in the United States lost “hundreds of millions” of dollars to the sophisticated scam, and more than 50,000 individuals had their personal information misused, the department said Friday. The money was routed through call centers in India back to the ringleaders in eight states. The fraudulent calls came suddenly and frequently while the scam was active from 2012 to 2016, according to court documents. A person posing as an Internal Revenue Service or immigration official was on the phone, threatening arrest, deportation or other penalties if the victims did not immediately pay their debts with prepaid cards or wire transfers…The words “U.S. Government” showed up as the caller I.D. on a number from which a New Hampshire woman was told to pay the I.R.S. $3,980 in payment cards, the court papers said. In the announcement on Friday, the department said 21 people living in eight states — Illinois, Arizona, Florida, California, Alabama, Indiana, New Jersey and Texas — were sentenced last week in Houston to prison for up to 20 years for their role in the scheme. Two other conspirators in Illinois were sentenced in February to between two years to just over four years for conspiracy, and a third person in Arizona was given probation in a plea agreement, it said. In addition, 32 contractors in India involving five call centers in Ahmedabad, a city in western India, have been indicted on wire fraud, money laundering and other conspiracy charges as part of the operation, the department said.\* ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/47 "2018-07-24T16:30:00Z")
Wow! For these people I might rethink my aversion to the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542/48 "2018-12-16T15:45:05Z")
An update: [Another 16 call centres linked to CRA scam busted in India: RCMP](https://globalnews.ca/news/4760616/call-centres-cra-scam-india-rcmp/) > [@](#): > > The RCMP says an additional 16 call centres linked to the Canada Revenue Agency phone scam have been dismantled by Indian authorities. > > Police said the call centres involved are believed to be among those behind the threatening phone messages commonly received by Canadians. The callers pose as CRA agents and demand payment of fines or tax debts, usually in Bitcoin, on a threat of prosecution. > > The call centre operations were shut down by local authorities, who received information from the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, as well as the support of an RCMP officer stationed in India, the RCMP said. > > The announcement brings the number of Indian call centres busted in relation to the CRA scam to 19 since September. > > “This latest development is part of a broad and long-standing international effort to address call centres that perpetuate fraud,” the RCMP said in statement Thursday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-income-tax-criminal-charges-phone-scam-cant-be-legal-can-it/815542.md?page=2)