How I used LSAT logic on a IRS scammer and won

lTexlawz

I wanted to share an experience that I had a couple days ago. I got a phone call saying this is IRS and we have a warrant for your arrest. I decided to that I find first by using a reverse lookup on the phone and found out the phone number was scam. I called the number. The IRS won't call you on the first time. They will send you a notice if there is an issue by US mail. Second, they won't demand money over the phone to stop an arrest. Nor do they threaten to thrown you in jail on the phone. Well, the scammer didn't know that I was a law student at one time and studying for the LSAT to get back in law school. It was my saving grace. I decided to tell the scammer. I said my name and he said that is he is IRS agent Jeffery Tribiano. He starting saying I am going to throw you in jail,But, we can stop the arrest by you paying by you going to your bank and wiring the money. I knew the real Jeffrey Tribiano was the deputy director of the Internal Revenue in Washington,DC and wouldn't be working in a call center. Also, the scammer spoke with an Indian accent.

I said before we proceed, I want to put out my disclaimer. The scammer wanted to know what was the disclaimer. I said, "You know you are in possible violation of the RICO statue 941. 18 U.S.C. 1343—Elements of Wire Fraud. I used the logic of LSAT and my legal skills to take the scammer apart for 5 whole minutes. I said," Now, we are going to do a 3 way call with a real FBI agent. Then, I am going to put you on hold for 2 minutes while I talk to the FBI about your violation of the statute for wire fraud. I will release the hold and you can explain to him or her why you insist going through with what you are planning. Also, you know that the agent can place a trace where you are calling from. I am sure they will be interested in what you have to say and why you want to go through with the fraud. Now, you have to ask yourself if you feel real luckily. The scammer was feeling scared and gave up. The scammer hung up from being scared. The politically correct thing is these days is lay down and let people run you over. I decided that political correctness was not going to stop people like this and it would allow it to continue. The bad guys will use political correctness pull more scams and will take it as a sign of weakness. They count on it. I felt brave and felt like I had won after I reported it actually today.

keets993

This is amazing

FixedDice

This IRS scam must be getting quite popular these days. Several weeks ago, one of the radio stations I listen to while driving claimed to have received the call and played the whole record on air. The personality threatened the scammer with a three-way call too, except (1) the call did take place, and (2) the third party was supposed to be an attorney (who was actually another personality). The way the scammer's voice destabilized as the call progressed was quite hilarious.

Tom_Tango

Congrats on the win.

studyingandrestudying

Good work!

Cant Get Right

I had a guy call me from Jamaica to tell me how to collect my lottery winnings, lol. It was a horrible scam and I told him. We actually laughed about it together; I think he knew on some level that it was comically bad. I know there’s a lot of extreme poverty in Jamaica and the guy is probably just trying to get by somehow with no real viable options. I told him that too and we went on to talk for over an hour. He was born poor in a bad part of Kingston; he never really stood a chance. He was actually trying the scam calls to support his mother and stay out of gang stuff which is really the only steady economic framework. Given his options, the scam seems the lesser of evils. It’s not like he can go to college, or move to a better neighborhood. Those are things that cost more than he’ll ever have access to. There is certainly some legitimate work, but far more people than jobs and it can be a pretty desperate effort to land something. So I considered the scam about on par with stealing bread to keep from starving. It was really interesting to talk to him and get his perspective on things. He’s actually quite intelligent, and I hate that his intelligence will go undeveloped and wasted just because he was born in the wrong neighborhood on the wrong island. He’s called me a couple times after that just to talk. I haven’t heard from him in a long time, but I hope he landed on his feet. I know his scam couldn’t have worked out, lol, but I hope he found something legit to keep out of the gangs and take care of his mom.

_oshun1_

IDK what political correctness and Indian accents have to do with any of this but good for you for wasting time in your life to hassle someone over the phone. There's no reason to think that someone named Jeffrey working in DC cant have an Indian accent. There's some LSAT logic for you on assumptions lol.

akistotle

@"Cant Get Right" said:
I had a guy call me from Jamaica to tell me how to collect my lottery winnings, lol. It was a horrible scam and I told him. We actually laughed about it together; I think he knew on some level that it was comically bad. I know there’s a lot of extreme poverty in Jamaica and the guy is probably just trying to get by somehow with no real viable options. I told him that too and we went on to talk for over an hour. He was born poor in a bad part of Kingston; he never really stood a chance. He was actually trying the scam calls to support his mother and stay out of gang stuff which is really the only steady economic framework. Given his options, the scam seems the lesser of evils. It’s not like he can go to college, or move to a better neighborhood. Those are things that cost more than he’ll ever have access to. There is certainly some legitimate work, but far more people than jobs and it can be a pretty desperate effort to land something. So I considered the scam about on par with stealing bread to keep from starving. It was really interesting to talk to him and get his perspective on things. He’s actually quite intelligent, and I hate that his intelligence will go undeveloped and wasted just because he was born in the wrong neighborhood on the wrong island. He’s called me a couple times after that just to talk. I haven’t heard from him in a long time, but I hope he landed on his feet. I know his scam couldn’t have worked out, lol, but I hope he found something legit to keep out of the gangs and take care of his mom.

Wow, this is such a good story. I hope he found something legit!

This story kind of reminded me of a chapter in Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" where he writes that he had never considered hustling as a crime (because it wasn't considered "bad" and was one of normal options in his neighborhood).

Seeking Perfection

@lTexlawz said:
I wanted to share an experience that I had a couple days ago. I got a phone call saying this is IRS and we have a warrant for your arrest. I decided to that I find first by using a reverse lookup on the phone and found out the phone number was scam. I called the number. The IRS won't call you on the first time. They will send you a notice if there is an issue by US mail. Second, they won't demand money over the phone to stop an arrest. Nor do they threaten to thrown you in jail on the phone. Well, the scammer didn't know that I was a law student at one time and studying for the LSAT to get back in law school. It was my saving grace. I decided to tell the scammer. I said my name and he said that is he is IRS agent Jeffery Tribiano. He starting saying I am going to throw you in jail,But, we can stop the arrest by you paying by you going to your bank and wiring the money. I knew the real Jeffrey Tribiano was the deputy director of the Internal Revenue in Washington,DC and wouldn't be working in a call center. Also, the scammer spoke with an Indian accent.

I said before we proceed, I want to put out my disclaimer. The scammer wanted to know what was the disclaimer. I said, "You know you are in possible violation of the RICO statue 941. 18 U.S.C. 1343—Elements of Wire Fraud. I used the logic of LSAT and my legal skills to take the scammer apart for 5 whole minutes. I said," Now, we are going to do a 3 way call with a real FBI agent. Then, I am going to put you on hold for 2 minutes while I talk to the FBI about your violation of the statute for wire fraud. I will release the hold and you can explain to him or her why you insist going through with what you are planning. Also, you know that the agent can place a trace where you are calling from. I am sure they will be interested in what you have to say and why you want to go through with the fraud. Now, you have to ask yourself if you feel real luckily. The scammer was feeling scared and gave up. The scammer hung up from being scared. The politically correct thing is these days is lay down and let people run you over. I decided that political correctness was not going to stop people like this and it would allow it to continue. The bad guys will use political correctness pull more scams and will take it as a sign of weakness. They count on it. I felt brave and felt like I had won after I reported it actually today.

So how did you stop him from continuing to commit future scams? They know the FBI or any other law enforcement agency isn't actually going to be able to find them and that if it did it would be totally unable and unwilling to waste resources attempting to extradite someone without a real name. I'm pretty sure that what you did was convince him that you knew it was a scam and therefore that talking further was a waste of time.

If I'm right, how is that any different from not calling him when you knew it was a scam? If you have unlimited minutes then I guess you just wasted your own time(and I guess wasted some of the scammers less economically valuable time too). If you don't, then you paid to think that you were somehow intimidating the scam artist (hopefully you got some entertainment out of it, because I doubt you stopped him from making any future calls). Even if you did scare him a little which is unlikely with that story, I'm sure he has more pressing fears and concerns.

I don't think that scam artists (at least in this circumstance) use political correctness to pull off their scams. If someone swears at them on the phone, attempts to trick them into being afraid, or just hangs up on them they write that off as one of the huge majority of their calls that don't work and move on to calling the next person. The only thing you can do that will annoy them is to waste their time. If they are being paid hourly or daily rather thn some kind of commission, this may not phase them either(but would still slightly hurt their bsiness model). However, the harm done by staying on the phone to you would be much greater(you could have been studying for the LSAT which could sace you up to $150,000 dollars in a year or two). So it really is best for you to hang up quickly or never call back without getting too annoyed, return to whatever you were doing before, and possibly take a moment to quickly report it.

Seeking Perfection

@"Cant Get Right" said:
I had a guy call me from Jamaica to tell me how to collect my lottery winnings, lol. It was a horrible scam and I told him. We actually laughed about it together; I think he knew on some level that it was comically bad. I know there’s a lot of extreme poverty in Jamaica and the guy is probably just trying to get by somehow with no real viable options. I told him that too and we went on to talk for over an hour. He was born poor in a bad part of Kingston; he never really stood a chance. He was actually trying the scam calls to support his mother and stay out of gang stuff which is really the only steady economic framework. Given his options, the scam seems the lesser of evils. It’s not like he can go to college, or move to a better neighborhood. Those are things that cost more than he’ll ever have access to. There is certainly some legitimate work, but far more people than jobs and it can be a pretty desperate effort to land something. So I considered the scam about on par with stealing bread to keep from starving. It was really interesting to talk to him and get his perspective on things. He’s actually quite intelligent, and I hate that his intelligence will go undeveloped and wasted just because he was born in the wrong neighborhood on the wrong island. He’s called me a couple times after that just to talk. I haven’t heard from him in a long time, but I hope he landed on his feet. I know his scam couldn’t have worked out, lol, but I hope he found something legit to keep out of the gangs and take care of his mom.

This seems like a way to actually benefit from the scam. A desparate person who speaks English is calling you. It makes sense to me to try to find out what the decision looks like from their side. There are lots of desparate people in the world and it is good to understand them. If you approach it well, you might even get them to consider the fact that if they convince anyone with their scam, it is likely to be the poorest and most desparate Americans who have had the least education and need their savings the most(basically those closest to the fate of the scam artists themselves). That probably won't persuade them to stop either, but it might encourage them to leave if they ever find a more ethical opportunity to support their family. So you both might gain from the conversation which is much better than the normal quick hangup where you both just lose a little time.

NerdSquad11

lol man you have unreal patience. I would have just hung up the phone