Thursday, March 28, 2024

Here’s how to protect yourself against CRA scams

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Surprise! Crooks are after your money again.

Reports of another round of CRA scam attempts have been circulating, and the CRA would like to remind taxpayers that they will never request money via e-mail transfer.

Furthermore, if you’ve a received a message indicating that you need to call an officer back or “face arrest” for unpaid taxes, it is a scam.

From the CRA website:

“Taxpayers should be vigilant when they receive, either by telephone, mail, text message or email, a fraudulent communication that claims to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requesting personal information such as a social insurance number, credit card number, bank account number, or passport number.

These scammers may insist that this personal information is needed so that the taxpayer can receive a refund or a benefit payment.

Cases of fraudulent communication 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.”

The 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.

Example of a scam email:

Example of scam text:

Jeremy Weeres
Jeremy Weeres
Victoria Royals and hockey writer at Victoria Buzz

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