River Police warn of CRA phone scam

Details

Published on Thursday, July 21, 2016

By Bruce Klassen

Rivers Police Chief

Rivers phone numbers have been inundated with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) scam calls. Rivers Police Service would like to inform members of our community this phone scam has been running rampant in our area for the last six weeks. Callers claim to be a CRA representative and often cite a warrant has been issued for your arrest if you do not call the return number. 

CRA does not contact you by telephone, so please, do not respond to these people or give them any funds! If you have any questions regarding this matter or whether a warrant exists, please contact us at 204-328-7430. You may also contact Fraud Busters to report this scam to them; unfortunately the phone number that appears in your caller ID usually cannot be traced back to a specific address.

Information from the Government of Canada’s Anti-Fraud Centre states the following:

Taxpayers should be vigilant when they receive by phone, mail, text message or e-mail, fraudulent communication that claims to be from CRA requesting personal information such as a social insurance number, credit card number, bank account number or passport number. Fraudsters impersonate the CRA because they are phishing for your identification and/or asking that outstanding taxes be paid by a money service business or by pre-paid debit/credit cards. There are two variations:

1. There is notification from "CRA" claiming there is a refund pending. In order for the recipient to receive the refund they must provide personal information.

2. Consumers and businesses receive a notification by phone or email that they owe "back taxes" as the result of an audit. The payment must be made immediately to avoid a fine or the recipient is told there is an outstanding warrant that can be avoided if the payment is made promptly. In many cases, individuals are told they will be deported if the taxes are not paid right away. Cases could also involve threatening or coercive language to scare individuals into paying fictitious debt to the CRA. Other communications urge taxpayers to visit a fake CRA website where the taxpayer is then asked to verify their identity by entering personal information. These are scams and taxpayers should never respond to these fraudulent communications or click on any of the links provided.

If you receive a call saying you owe money to the CRA, call CRA or check My Account to be sure. If you have signed up for online mail (available through My Account, My Business Account, and Represent a Client), CRA will do the following:

• send a registration confirmation email to the address you provided for online mail service for an individual or a business; and

• send an email to the address you provided to notify you when new online mail is available to view in CRA's secure online services portal.

CRA will NOT do the following:

• send email with a link and ask you to divulge personal or financial information;

• ask for personal information of any kind by email or text message.

• request payments by prepaid credit cards.

• give taxpayer information to another person, unless formal authorization is provided by the taxpayer.

• leave personal information on an answering machine.

Protect yourself!

• Do not take immediate action. Verify that what you are being told is the truth.

• Ask yourself why CRA would be asking for personal information over the phone or email that they likely already have on file for you as a taxpayer.

• Contact CRA to confirm that you owe back taxes, or are entitled to a refund, before providing any personal or banking information.

Were you a victim? Contact Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501, Competition Bureau of Canada at 1-800-348-5358, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada at 1-866-461-3222 or your local 

Better Business Bureau office.