This story is funny and scary, all at the same time.
I can’t remember if it was before or after I left my job but I got a weird call in the morning from a guy “claiming” to be from the IRS. If you know anything about the IRS, (clearly I don’t know much) you know the IRS typically almost never calls.
I remember it was around 6 AM when this guy called me and started yelling at me, saying that I have been invading my taxes and I owe the US government money. As I sat up, I said to the guy, this can’t be right. My aunt and my uncle have a tax office. There is no way they would let my taxes get out of control.
He then proceeded to tell me that this is “good news” because I can get the money back from my uncle, who did my taxes, but just after I paid the IRS. He told me I would just have to sue them. At this point I was fully awake from my sleep and started to freak out.
How in the world could my aunt and uncle mess up on my taxes? He then began asking me all this information based on personal information from my past. I had no idea how he could have gotten this information, such as previous addresses and work information. At that point I figured oh my goodness this is real I can’t believe this is happening!!
The more I stayed on the phone, the more I began to cry. When he realized I was crying he finally calmed down and started to help me come up with “solutions” to get myself out of this mess. He asked me how much money was in my bank account and I told him the dollar amount. He said that I would need to pay all that money in order to cover my taxes he then proceeded to ask me to go to my local bank and withdraw all the money from my account and so I could pay the government.
At this time I was COMPLETELY freaking out. I grabbed my laptop and began to text my grandma and my dad to ask them what the heck was going on?! My dad told me to tell them to pound sand. My grandma told me it was a scam. Devastated, worried, and completely scared out of my mind I hung up the phone and called my dad rejoicing that he was able to save me from being scammed all of all my money!!
It was the weirdest experience and sooo emotional because I’ve never been in that position to be scammed out of everything, granted the fact that this was also the time where I was quitting my job without another job lined up (we’ll talk more about this tomorrow) I couldn’t help but wonder what God was up to with clearing out my bank account, but it turns out it was just the devil trying to spook me out.
The best thing I learned from this is to always ask for help and never trust these people that say they’re the IRS.
I hope with this story made you laugh, and if you’ve ever almost been scammed realize, you’re not alone. It happens to the best of us, even the ones that used to work in loss prevention.
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