Frustrated Scammers Make 911 Calls, SWAT Team Surrounds Victim's Home
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - It's a new twist on the old IRS scam and it ended with a Colorado Springs woman being surrounded by the SWAT team.
According to KKTV, police swarmed the home on Windy Oaks Road near Northgate and Highway 83 on the north side of Colorado Springs on Tuesday after receiving several 911 calls. One call said the homeowner, Jim Davis, was threatening to kill other people. In another call someone pretending to be Jim Davis said armed men were outside demanding money.
Dispatcher: Are they threatening you with guns?
Caller: Yes.
Dispatcher: And they're asking you for money?
Caller: Yes.
Jim Davis had been getting many calls from scammers posing as IRS agents demanding money. When those scammers got frustrated they started making the phony calls to 911.
Davis wasn't even home, but his daughter, Amber Davis, 20, was and answered the phone.
"The house phone was ringing like 50 times, so I really didn't know what was going on, and so I finally answered thinking that it was my dad trying to get a hold of me, and this guy answered in a really weird accent and he said that my dad was under arrest," Amber Davis said.
That was just minutes before police arrived.
Jim Davis was at work when police arrived at his house. He rushed to home because he wasn't sure if he was talking to police officers or scammers.
"I didn't know who was calling me because I had all these fake phone calls happening from six different numbers ... so when the police officer contacted me on my cell phone ... it said it was from an unavailable number so I thought it was a scam again," Jim Davis said. "Naturally I was scared for my family's life ... I was also scared; they said that if I didn't pay I was going to go to prison and I was going to have to pay $96,000."
Amber Davis eventually went outside and Jim Davis arrived home. After talking with police the officers realized it was a scam.
Police are now investigating where the calls came from and told Jim Davis the FBI would be getting involved.
Police say the IRS will never call or threaten someone over the phone and always send information through the mail.
