LOL what I find fascinating is that people keep falling for it. I guess PT Barnum was right: there is a sucker born every minute!
that was my opinion until an experience last year
i assist Montagnard (vietnamese) refugees who have immigrated to this area
they are a very honest and very naive tribal people
ripe for the exploitation of conniving bastards
last fall i got a call from one of the Montagnard people. a 20 year old pregnant woman with two kids, whose husband supports the family by doing roofing labor. he was the sole, hard working, income earner
she asked if i could help her get her money back
seems a caller from new york spoke with her about an IRS refund being available to her and her husband. but in order to get that $6+ thousand refund, she would have to first pay off the amount shown to now be owing. that amount just happened to be what she had in the bank. so she went as directed and wired 'credits' for $1800 to pay the amount outstanding and awaited a phone call telling her when the $6 grand was going to be wired to her bank account
while waiting on that call, her husband's debit card was denied when he tried to buy lunch at work
she called the woman back and the woman explained she still owed another $700
i received the call with her asking if she should borrow the additional $700 from family members and wire more 'credits' as instructed
of course, that is when we stopped the hemorrage of money in the con's direction and contacted the Treasury Department Inspector General because of the misrepresentation of the collection of an IRS debt
seems this is a widespread scam
and it works on the gullible and the greedy alike
hope there is a special place in hell for such bastards