NEW MINAS, N.S. — Tax season is upon us and, with it, comes another round of CRA scams.
Kings District RCMP would like to warn you that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) scam is making its rounds again. Kings District RCMP detachments are seeing frauds and scams on a daily basis.
The telephone scams involve the suspect threatening taxpayers or using forceful language to scare them into paying a fabricated debt to the CRA. Victims receive a phone call from a person claiming to work for the CRA who says that taxes are owed. The suspect usually requests immediate payment by credit card or will convince the victim to purchase a prepaid credit card or gift card and demand that they call the suspect back immediately with the information. Recent scams have involved the suspect asking for payment in bitcoin or prepaid iTunes gift cards. The taxpayer is often threatened with court charges, jail or even deportation.
In order for people to better protect themselves against becoming a victim of fraud with regard to income tax scams, either via telephone or e-mail, police suggest that people ask themselves the following questions:
Is there a reason that the CRA may be calling?
Am I confident I know who is asking for the information?
Do I have a tax balance outstanding?
Is the requester asking for information I know the CRA already has on file for me?
How did the requester get my e-mail address or telephone number?
If you want to confirm that a CRA representative has contacted you, call the CRA at 1-800-959-8281 for individual concerns or 1-800-959-5525 for business-related calls.
Police also urge merchants who sell any type of gift cards to question large amount requests. Where questioning leads to a suspected fraud or scam please report the incident to local RCMP office.
For more information on fraud prevention, please visit the www.antifraudcentre.ca .
