MUMBAI (Nov 30): In late September, a woman in National City, California, received a voice message on her phone saying she was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over "tax evasion or tax fraud".

Panicking, she rang the number and told a man who said he was from the IRS: "I can pay US$500 ($713)," half the sum demanded. "I could do a payment plan. I just can't pay all of it at once."

"Ma'am, you can pay US$500 today itself. You can do that?" the man asked, adding that lawyers would look at her accounts and work out a monthly payment plan, but she had to pay half now.

To continue reading,

Sign in to access this Premium article.

Subscription entitlements:

Less than $9 per month
3 Simultaneous logins across all devices
Unlimited access to latest and premium articles
Bonus unlimited access to online articles and virtual newspaper on The Edge Malaysia (single login)
Related Stories

Stay updated with Singapore corporate news stories for FREE

Follow our Telegram | Facebook