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Public Service Announcement: Scam Calls

Public Service Announcement:

Here's a reminder, especially as we get closer to tax season, to be careful about Canada Revenue Agency (or any) scams.

I had a call today from someone claiming to be from the CRA. He gave me the name of the CRA rep he was calling from, and his badge number and an incident number. The reception was in and out so it took me a little longer to interpret and wrap my head around what he was saying.

According to this man, my last 5 years of tax returns had been assessed, and there was a warrant out for my arrest for tax fraud and evasion. In order to prevent the issue from progressing, (according to them by getting arrested and having to go to court), I had to pay what they claimed I owed, and the warrant would be cancelled. I was told this was a time sensitive issue and I would have to pay the money today, and was asked if I had the funds available (I didn't give them an answer).

They also threatened me that if I hung up the phone then they would send my information to the local authorities and I would be put behind bars for up to 90 days as this is a federal crime. It would be added as an extra charge on my warrant as evading paying, or buying time to get the money. When I asked why I hadn't been notified by mail of a tax reassessment or why my tax accountant wasn't notified, I was told that step is bypassed in the event of suspected criminal activity, such as my supposed activity was categorized.

By now I've clued in that this is not a legitimate call. I Googled the phone number and no information came up, certainly not anything relating to the Canada Revenue Agency. Upon checking the CRA Protect Yourself Against Fraud page, the dialogue from these guys was pretty much spot on.

Me being me, I start grilling them back. They wanted me to sign onto a website to complete my payment to make the warrant go away. I tell them that if I need to make a payment, I require paperwork showing where the supposed evasion was found, and how they arrived to the $2543.00 I apparently kept from the Federal Government. I then continue by asking if I can't just go into my local bank branch location to pay, and was told no, it must be through the website.

From there I let this guy know (quite aggressively I might add) that if I can't go into a bank to pay the CRA then I am questioning the legitimacy of the call, and that I do not believe he is calling from the CRA as the actual agency would never send the cops to your house, as these folks were threatening to do. He tried to argue back, but I yelled the facts at him until he hung up on me.

I then called the actual CRA, and confirm there was no issues with my account. Once I began to share my story, the lady assured me that that had been a scam, and made sure I didn't give away any personal information. She also assured me that the CRA would never threaten to have police sent to arrest someone over the phone like that.

Be careful with who you trust when the phone rings! Trust your gut: if it sounds fishy or far-fetched it probably is.
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