Income Tax Scams Canada 2015
Beware phony CRA tax owing calls, they started in the United States, then the U.K, Australia and now they’re targeting Canada. The scam began in India the world’s largest English speaking country which is why they’re targeting English speaking nations.
For individuals looking for a quick solution to this problem you can contact the Canada Revenue Agency to find out if you do owe money. The number is 1-800-959-8281. Be Warned however that this scam is so widespread that it might take sometime for you to get someone, which is why I’m writing this.
Information about the scammers’ tactics from the anti-fraud centre:
- They call on your home phone and use your name if they find a listing for you in an online directory.
- They say there has been an audit of your tax returns from 2008 to 2013. This gives them some wiggle room.
- They accuse you of deliberately hiding your income, which will result in a minimum court fine of $50,000, much higher than what you owe in unpaid taxes.
- They do not tell you to write a cheque to the Receiver General for Canada, the usual recipient of tax owing.
- They ask you to send money to them using Western Union, Moneygram, a prepaid card purchased at a store or direct deposit into a bank account.
- They warn this is a confidential matter. You cannot speak of it to your spouse, family or friends.
If you contacted the CRA and they haven’t gotten back to you it’s because… The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre can’t keep up with the complaints – not only from those who lose money, but also from those who feel victimized by the fraudulent CRA agents.
That’s how wide spread this scam is in 2015, and chances are if these scammers continue to fleece Canadians it will continue well it 2016 – 2020.
What can you do if you get these calls? Here are some tips:
- Verify, verify, verify. Find out who you are dealing with before parting with any of your money.
- Google is your best friend. Write down any phone numbers or reference numbers you receive and put them into the search engine. This will usually turn up other complaints.
- Call the Canada Revenue Agency to find out if you do owe money. The number is 1-800-959-8281 for individual concerns and 1-800-959-5525 for business-related calls.
- Remember that the CRA never leaves personal information on your answering machine or asks you to leave a message with personal information on an answering machine.
- It never requests prepaid credit cards and never asks for information about your passport, health card or driver’s licence.
- Check for news alerts at the CRA website, where you can find three warnings put out this year.
- Adopt a suspicious attitude to any calls claiming to be from the government. Ignore threats and take time to do research before responding.
If you want to hear a Sample telephone scam go the Canada Revenue Agency website and type in “Protect yourself against fraud” or you can click one of the links below.
Protect yourself against fraud
Sample telephone scam
If you’re reading and the scammer left a message on your phone record the message and submit it to the CRA or leave a comment below and I’ll post it on this blog post.
Let’s send these scammers a message that we will not be bullied. These income tax scams have been reported in all the ten provinces including Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan and the three territories Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.
Leave a comment below you don’t have to leave your real name or real email address. Your comments help bring about awareness of this fraud. As of October 2015 these scammers have made off with over $800,000.