I got a call from supposedly from the IRS, but I noticed my call id phone did not pick up the number that was calling. The call sounded like the IRS, a recorded woman voice, and gave me a claim number, asking to call by the end of the day. I did not call. This is suspicious to me. Anybody with the same experience? Do IRS initiate audits by calling people anonymously? Thanks!

No, the IRS never initiates contact by phone. They will ONLY initiate contact by snail-mail. Additionally, the IRS never uses "claim" numbers. Everything is filed by your SSN or EIN if it’s a business return. This sounds like a fairly common scam.

If anyone calls you claiming to be from the IRS, ask them for your name and SSN. This will stop a scammer cold as they have neither. They will try and say that they can’t do that for "security reasons" or some other such BS. Just say, "Fine, send me a letter," and hang up.

If you have an open audit or other claim with the IRS that is being worked, they may call you if you gave them your phone number. However they never initiate an audit contact by phone. Ever. If an IRS agent or employee calls you they will address you by name and if you ask for your SSN or EIN for verification they will give it to you after asking a test question (such as the number of exemptions on your most recent return and the filing status) to verify that they are talking to the taxpayer.

A popular scam a number of years ago was to leave a message on your voice-mail telling you to call a "toll free" number that was actually an international premium-rate call to the Caribbean. Your phone would be charged several hundred dollars for the call and since you dialed the call the phone company would not take it off of your bill. When you called they would establish that they had called the wrong taxpayer and you’d shrug it off until the phone bill came.

Another popular scam is telling you that you are due a refund and asking you for your banking or credit card details so that they can deposit the money. They will also ask for certain personal information "for security reasons" that is then used to drain your bank account, max out your credit cards, or steal your identity.

If you receive a voice-mail message purporting to come from the IRS and leaving a number to call, NEVER call the number that they leave. Call the IRS main number at 1-800-TAX-1040 and hold on the line for a human and ask if they are trying to reach you by phone. If they are, there will be a record of the call and you will be routed to the agent handling your case.

Most of these scammers don’t want to talk to you directly so if you have received a number of hang-up calls with caller ID blocked it’s a strong indicator that you are being targeted by scammers.

Also, don’t trust caller ID completely. A sophisticated scammer with a business trunk and a PBX (there are open-source PBXs that run on PC hardware) can spoof caller ID very easily. I manage one such system and occasionally we’ll "punk" someone by calling them and setting the PBX to show "The White House" on the target’s caller ID. A channelized trunk line can be had for as little as $300 a month in most major cities and tracing calls back to the source can be difficult as you can "bounce" calls through any phone switch on the planet if you know what you’re doing. By the time that the authorities locate the scammer’s boiler room the scammers have cleared out leaving little if any evidence behind.