美国国家公共电台 NPR A Real-Life Tax Scam: This Is What IRS Phone Fraud Sounds Like

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Tax season is here. The filing deadline is next Monday. This year, tax day is the 18th, not the 15th. And when tax season heats up, so does scam season. NPR recently received a recording 1 - a real-life phone call between a woman in Atlanta and a man in a call center claiming to be with the Internal Revenue Service. NPR's Aarti Shahani recaps their peculiar 2 conversation.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE 3: It's a little hard to understand at times.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: All right, Miss, can you please confirm your first name?

SHAHANI: An unidentified IRS man wants her name.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

EMMA LAUDER: OK. My name is Emma Lauder.

SHAHANI: The agent tells Emma Lauder that his office has audited 5 her taxes from 2009 to 2014, and there's been a miscalculation. She owes money.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: OK, for that reason, the local authorities with an arrest warrant will come at your place.

SHAHANI: And she's going to be arrested - could be any minute now.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Everything under your name - your property, your bank account - everything will be seized, OK?

SHAHANI: And...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: And you also face a federal imprisonment 6 for up to five years.

SHAHANI: This is not a fun call to get. The punchline 7 is how much she owes.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: The total finance outstand on your name is $1,986.93, OK?

SHAHANI: All of this, from the audit 4 to her arrest warrant - all these threats over less than two grand? Now, Emma Lauder is not really Emma Lauder. She's a researcher with Pindrop, an Atlanta Company that investigates phone fraud. We can't give her real name, as that would blow her cover. Pindrop set up honeypots - dummy 8 phone numbers. some entered into online raffles 9 - win a free iPhone, stuff that's run by criminal rings. Pindrop has traced at least 28 fraud incidents to this ring.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Yes. Do you want to resolve this case outside the courthouse, or do you want to go and fight with IRS in a courthouse?

SHAHANI: According to phone metadata, the data call center is based in a Seattle suburb. But that could just be a proxy 10. Pindrop researchers say the ring is hard to pinpoint 11 because they have tools to hide the physical location and the money trail.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I said this is a federal case, so we don't accept any checks or credit card or debit 12 card, OK?

SHAHANI: The call center operator wants cash, and he guides his target through what is clearly a routine drill playing on fear and secrecy 13.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: You see, Miss, do not disclose to anyone else, to your boss or to anyone else, OK?

SHAHANI: He tells her the federal government only accepts Western Union or MoneyGram and that she must pay at Walmart. The tone of the call really changes from helpful to cruel when she confirms payment. She asks for a receipt, and another so-called IRS agent - he gives this response.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: You can, you know, take a bath and relax.

LAUDER: OK, but...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Relax, OK? Take a bit of cold water, you know?

LAUDER: Yeah, but...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Cold water.

SHAHANI: It's creepy. They refer to her private parts and tell her to go look in the toilet.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: I have your address.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: When you go to toilet, the letter will come out from the toilet.

SHAHANI: The real IRS says it's seeing a surge in phone scams with more than 5,000 victims since late 2013. If you get a strange message, one way to handle it is, don't hand over information right away. Hang up and call the IRS directly. Aarti Shahani, NPR News.