Cybersecurity Blog

Mount Royal Community Member gets fake CRA call – 03/09/18

 

One sure sign that spring is on its way…tax scammers pop up along with the tulips.  Although we are a ways away from enjoying the tulips, the scammers are out in full force. One Mount Royal employee came into work to find this on his voicemail.

Click the far left of the bar to listen to the voicemail message.

Pretty nasty huh? So how to do you know this is a scam?  Simple, the CRA will never phone you and threaten legal action or arrest. They will never send someone to your house to collect payment or to arrest you either.  This was a voicemail, so it was easy to calmly listen to the message and analyze it to determine if it was legitimate.

What do you do if they have you on the phone and they are threatening you? The scammers can be very insistent and believable causing considerable stress and confusion. If you experience a call like that from the CRA, tell them you will call them back and hang up. You can then contact the CRA at 1-800-959-8281.  If there are any issues with your taxes, whoever answers the phone will be able to address them.

Watch out for phishing emails from the CRA as well. As I mentioned in a post last year, the CRA will never email you unless you have given them previous permission to do so and they will never send you an email with links unless you have specifically requested a document.

For more information on how to identify CRA fraud and protect yourself, visit the CRA website.

One thought on “Mount Royal Community Member gets fake CRA call – 03/09/18

  1. It is tax season and Mount Royal employees are again receiving threatening calls from scammers pretending to be with the CRA.

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