IRS Settlement Scam

Scams Government Scam
, ,
1

Scam Number: 1-516-862-9513
Domain Used: No Domain Discovered

I received an IRS call today (which is weird to receive in canada) from scammers with the following message.

“Thank you for connecting. I am the virtual assistant for margaret smith with central processing center for federal back tax negotiations. The purpose of her call was to make you aware that the government suspended the tax collection act and will settle all old tax debts that us residents may have within the past year. This means you are not going to need to pay back your past due taxes since they are non collectible and ready to be settled. Using our automated approval technology, you are now able to obtain enrollment information based on your current situation to user a automation and find the program you are approved for. You will need to write down the website. I will also deliver a text message that will provide a link to the program’s benefits. Press 1 if you would like to hear the website and receive a text message.”

I looked up Ms. Smith, and the reference I found is relating to a “Credit Lenders Service Agency” in New Jersey that on calling, routes to an automated voice system. I believe this company may not be directly responsible or involved at all, but could be involved as the people orchestrating the entire operation through the other companies i will mention below.

The actual scammers:

After doing some research, my info has led me to believe that “IP Horizon LLC” (https://iphorizon.com/), a Boca Raton, Florida company that seems to share ownership and/or management with HFA Holdings, Call48, and “V1 Voip”, is responsible for a large part of these scam calls, or orchestrating the network these scammers use. Their home site is very basic, and their LinkedIn reveals a lot about their staffing. They seem to be quite involved with everything regarding the scam, with other firms sharing the same staff under different umbrellas.

V1 VOIP seems to be the parent company, with the address: 7700 Congress Ave suite 3214, Boca Raton, FL 33487, USA. Their website has a linkedin and FB social page, but neither actually exist anymore. If you search V1VOIP on linkedin, there are 3 associates who have worked there.

The number that phoned me through their service, (1-516-862-9513), unlike most scammer numbers isn’t removed on failure to acquire a victim. I was easily able to call back. If you call, press 1 each time a voice appears to get past their automated bs. The number traces to Nassau Bay in New York State, and I am sure that they are not spoofing the number.

If anyone can do anything with this information, I wish you luck. This has been all ive been able to find in the past hour.

7 Likes
2

That’s a lot of great information. Good job digging all of that up.

I submitted the number to Bandwidth support as fraud

1 Like
3

The IVR at IP HORIZON (LAW ENFORCEMENT INQUIRY – IP Horizon) does not work. It plays audio however does not accept button press entries. The URI of “sample page” & the “wordpress hosted” message in the footer don’t leave me feeling very legit about this website.

1 Like
4

Thank ya! I honestly love doing this kind of research, and I can find pretty much anything. Will probably post more scam infos in the future.

1 Like
5

I’ve posted tens of thousands of these numbers here over the last 6 weeks or so.
They always reside amongst a consecutive block of 1000 numbers from number ending 000, to the next 000.
There are 24 different variations of student loans and tax forgiveness amongst them all.
I estimate there to be in excess of 100,000, quite probably many more of these numbers across every area code.
I’m currently collating another very large list in the toll free number prefixes of Tax hotline and Tax centre numbers as well as various Student loan forgiveness numbers

I’ve listed 1000 numbers blocks in the following area codes
206 - Seattle, WA
213 - Los Angeles, CA
239 - Cape Coral, FL
515 - Des Moines, IA
641 - Mason City, IA
802 - Vermont
909 - San Bernardino, CA
951 - Riverside, CA

I’ve documented 37,000 numbers so far with no end in sight.
I set my dialler program to run overnight in these blocks when I feel like doing it.
Reporting these numbers is a waste of my time as they seem complicit in hosting them, I’m sure they enjoy the monthly profit/loss statement to reap the windfall these robocalling pricks give them in extra revenue they don’t want to go without.
They never take the numbers down.
I had better luck in spooking these places by mass calling them all… They must have noticed every voicemailbox filled with nonsense sounds.
The next day several thousand were absent for the first time, having been replaced by leadgens on every single number once the numbers were parked.

2 Likes
6

The number (925)474-4288 is a very active IRS scam line.

I was transferred to an Indian man who asked me for some personal details including how much debt I was in. I was then transferred to his, “senior supervisor” named Martin Houser he asked for all kinds of information.

This included but is not limited to:

Address:
ZIP code:
Marital status:
Social Security:
Email:
Missed tax years:
Businesses:
Home owner or renter:
Amount of debt:
Amount of credit cards and the limit on them:

The “senior supervisor” then said he would make a joint call with the IRS. Then Mr. Stone answered the line and asked me for my SSN, of course my number is made up. He checked with me several times to make sure he had the right number. The Martin Houser (Him and the guy from the IRS were both American sounding) then hung up the line with Mr. Stone and said that he didn’t know what he was doing and that IRS workers are a dime-a-dozen. He then connected me with a Miss Toeslend who had the same issue with the SSN. Martin Houser then tried the number himself and said that is it not working.

He then said once I have to issue resolved to call him back on:

(818)650-1146

Which is different that the number I was speaking to him with.

Any questions please ask I’m happy to help.

7

Interesting. As @no2pencil mentioned about the wordpress site being sketchy, I am going to go through the websites coding. Specifically any of the websites out there that might pertain to this. I’ve managed to find peoples socials, what password managers they use for their wordpress site, amongst numerous other things just from looking through wordpress code. Its very likely that there is a lot of info scattered through said code, and if they are dumb enough to even bother to use linkedin, then they are dumb enough to leave old code, future page deployments, etc. After that I will check socials to see if there are any public accounts out there I can find. Prep for a large infodump later tonight.

1 Like
8

flooding the 818 number…

9

1 Like
10

Oooh, that sounds like either RingCentral hold music -

11

Welcome to the community, @KSHRK5!

2 Likes
12

I love this copy and paste for audio. Didn’t think it would work I may have to start talking to them and posting my conversations. Is there a limit on how long the audio can be?

13

@FIREFIGHTER619 I don’t know - not familiar with that function of the site.

14

Well I guess there’s only one way to find out. Haven’t gotten yelled at or anything yet. If I can just get up the courage.

15

Just talked to the guy on the 818 number, he passed me off to his supervisor. This is a legit (all-be-it-scummy) business. They buy records on individuals from data-warehouses, & follow up with people specifically that have a lien due to tax reasons. They help middle-man tax lien & tax delinquency, even admitted that there are many numbers that receive inbound calls, as they buy bulk numbers for advertising & so forth.

Again, a predatory & rather scummy business model, but I don’t think that they are the scammers we are wanting to target. Just for context here is where I am coming from : he asked my name, couldn’t find me in their records, asked about my number, couldn’t find it, so I said I was calling for a family member, he couldn’t find that name either, that’s when he asked if there was a lien due to tax delinquency. They’re asking ME if I owe taxes & not finding me in a fake db, not threatening me & attempting to get me to buy gift-cards. Subtle, but huge difference. This is speaking only to the 818 number, not the main entry, or anyone that has spoken with an Indian.

(just my opinion above, you’re obviously free to do whatever you want)

2 Likes
16

just called still seems to work

17

I do think the 818 number is different from the business that i received the call from. I have yet to work out where in nassau bay the og post refers to, but i will find it.

Id prefer if we dont spam these numbers right away, and maybe do a bit of investigating.

My plan is to maybe get setup to do a full op on these guys, im kinda tired of scam calls and would honestly like to see the end of US Compliant scam centers. If both are joint operations, it could mean a bigger circle than i initally thought.

2 Likes