Enough being done to stop growing tax scam?
Congress will hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss a growing scam involving con artists posing as IRS agents.
Last month, we introduced you to Pastor Al Cadenhead, one North Carolina man who fell victim to the hoax. He told us he wanted to go public to help others, but after hearing his story, a senior member of Congress wanted to know why the Justice Department isn't doing more to stop the scam.
"This woman gave me her name and her badge number, said that she was informing me that they were filing a warrant for my arrest," Cadenhead said.
The reason she gave? Tax fraud.
Cadenhead told CBS News what it was like to get this angry call from someone claiming to be with the IRS.
"Delay in calling us back might end up into a legal matter for you," the so-called IRS agent said.
"My heart was racing. It was racing. I am very afraid at that point," Cadenhead said.
The CBS News report caught the attention of Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
On Wednesday, Collins will hold a hearing on what is the largest impersonation scam in IRS history, and Cadenhead will be the star witness.
He'll tell Congress what he told CBS News -- that he didn't believe he had done anything wrong but was too fearful to fight back.
"I'm retiring in a few months. This is not how I want to be remembered, being arrested," Cadenhead said.
He'll say he did what he was told. He repeatedly withdrew money from his bank, bought prepaid debit cards at drug stores, then gave the pin numbers on the cards to what he thought were IRS agents but turned out to be scammers. In all he gave them $16,000 in a single day. When he realized he had been scammed, Candenhead said he was "very embarrassed."
Two federal agencies investigating the scam will also testify, but despite a written invitation, the Department of Justice has refused -- and that has Collins steaming mad.
"I'm going to chastise the department for its failure to cooperate with our investigation, and for its lax attitude toward a scam that's affecting thousands of American citizens," Collins said. "It is outrageous and inexcusable that the department is not taking this more seriously and won't even send a witness to testify."
Collins said this scam, which has targeted more than 400,000 Americans and defrauded 3,000 people a total of $15.5 million, is too big for the Justice Department to ignore. So far there have been only two prosecutions targeting very low-level operators.
"The scam will not stop until people start going to jail," Collins said.
Collins hopes to use this hearing to embarrass the Justice Department into taking action.
A DOJ spokesperson said the department is committed to prosecuting these crimes and provided two lengthy briefings to Senate staff.
For Senator Collins, it was not enough.