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Former MTV VJ Dave Holmes tweets bizarro encounter with IRS scammers

The lesson here: Never check your voicemail.

 

Audra Schroeder

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Posted on Jan 21, 2016   Updated on May 27, 2021, 8:12 am CDT

Some days, the IRS finds you at just the right moment. 

On Thursday evening, Twitter got to live vicariously through Dave Holmes, who tweeted out the incredible tale of alleged con artists posing as IRS collection agents and demanding $5,300 from the former MTV VJ over the phone, or else. 

This type of IRS phone scam isn’t new; its been going on for years, and right now is especially ripe for scammers as people prepare their taxes. Holmes, a writer and actor, apparently took this anxiety-inducing opportunity to try out some improv on his way home. 

As with many Twitter tales, it’s easy to be skeptical when a story has peaks and valleys like this one. But it is the most modern of cautionary tales, and Twitter, at least for the night, was throughly immersed in all the characters: Paul, Johnson, Debbie. Holmes’s memoir, Party of One, is due out this summer, though it’s not clear if this chapter will be in it. 

We’ve reached out to Holmes for comment. 

Screengrab via Maker Music/YouTube 

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*First Published: Jan 21, 2016, 11:47 pm CST