Nowadays, phone scammers are getting smarter and and more clever. Even though people are told to be aware of such scams, there are still victims of these phone scams. Recently, a recording of a scammer who pretended to be an IRS employee went viral.
IRS is the revenue service of the United States Federal Government, it is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. The IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and administering Internal Revenue Code.
One office full of phony Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents made a dumb move when they called a computer programmer who happens to specialize in scam prevention.
The programmer and Redditor, who goes by the username YesItWasDataMined, but operates an anti-scam operation called Project Mayhem, received a voicemail from someone claiming to be an IRS employee. When he called them back and was asked to pay a massive fine for unclear reasons, he knew immediately that he was being had – and came up with a genius way to pull the plug on them. He wrote a script that called each of their phones 28 times per second with an automated message, tying up their lines and making it impossible to reach other potential victims.
The actual IRS recently published a report declaring these kinds of schemes a “major threat to taxpayers,” and estimates that over 10 thousand victims have been affected since 2013, collectively being defrauded of more than 54 million dollars.
Project Mayhem’s official YouTube channel now proudly features a hilarious 10-minute sample of the havoc wreaked upon the unfortunate scammers, which has already gained over 1 million views. Watch it below, and always remember to protect yourself against any suspicious requests for your private information.
“I don’t understand how people still can get scammed when the caller sounded WAAAAYY different from the name provided. How can a lady named Kara Woods sound like an Indian woman or a man named Jason Brown sound like an Indian man?? Coincidently all these people with English names all sounded like Indians, speaking Hindi. Dig your ears people! Wake up and always remember to protect yourself!,” mad reaction from a viewer after watching the video.
Please remember not to ever reveal your private information if you suspect the caller. If they say that they are calling from a government office or bank, HANG UP and you call them back!
Sources: boredpanda.com, thecoverage.com
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