I Am a Bad Girl

...at least, that's what "Curt Stevens of the Dept. of Legal Affairs" says.

According to him, we have a lien filed against us. We need to talk to him (or our lawyer does) asap -- or Bad Things Will Happen.

He must have been speaking with that "IRS agent" who phoned a few weeks ago, also saying we had a complaint against us. When I had the chutzpah to ask the guy why he was calling, when the IRS normally mails everything, he hung up.

No doubt a bad connection.

Scam phone calls are an epidemic right now. (The IRS is particularly sick of them.) Most often the callers threaten to wreck your taxes, credit score, have you arrested, deported, etc etc, unless you send them money Right Away. (And they're not nice about it, either.) Most times, the caller either has a bad English accent (so far, it's been Indian -- as from India-- or Hispanic for us) and doesn't know their terms very well.
     Which should be a giant red flag that they're bogus.

But tell that to The Mama, who got a call from an "IRS agent" and was terrified, until we talked it through. These scumbags feed on our willingness to be good citizens. They love getting older people, for that reason...and keep pushing for a quick conclusion, i.e., a payment.

For them, it's M-O-N-E-Y. (They managed to extort more than a million dollars just the last year alone.)

For you, it's peace of mind lost. (And a faint worry, in the back of your mind, that you really DO owe somebody -- or the IRS -- something.)

Well, you don't. Don't pay them a cent. Tell them to mail a notice. If they are who they say they are, you would have gotten one already. Normally, I would add the sentence "Take my name off your list" -- but I doubt they'd care. After all, they're already doing something illegal.

Can we make these scammers stop? I doubt it. After 30 min. or so of trying to get a live person at Verizon, so I could complain, I gave up. But you CAN file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.  (It will just take a few minutes.)

Feel free to call "Curt Stevens" back at 760-298-4491, and tell him I said so.