“Can you hear me? This is Tony with Tax Relief Support, I am calling about the IRS Fresh Start Program.”
Scammer will ask how much you owe to the IRS (minimum $10,000) and how long you missed filing your back taxes to the IRS before transferring you to their “senior tax specialist,” Lexus from an undisclosed company in Southern California. I tried my best to pressure him into providing the name of their company, but he wound up disconnecting with the promise of “calling me back” at a later time.
I then opted to call them back, where “Adam” picked up and transferred me to his “tax consultant,” Tyler from ClearStart, a student loan service with a grade of C- with the Better Business Bureau. They claim to do business from a Workwill office space at 17322 Murphy Ave, Irvine, CA 92614-5920
According to Google, the company does business under the identity of ClearStart Tax, with their office being located at the Lakeshore Towers at 2211 Michelson Dr Suite 900, Irvine, CA 92612
Associated Phone Numbers:
(866) 538-9442
(number no longer in service)
(888) 235-0004
“Thank you for calling ClearStart Tax Relief. Calls may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance. If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it now. For customer support, press 1. For billing-related support, press 2. For resolution appointments, press 3. For finance-related support, press 4. If you are calling from the IRS or a state tax agency, press 5.”
The scammers will call back with unknown numbers if you threaten to sue them for blatantly violating the TCPA.