Okanagan Mounties issue warning/advice about telephone tax scammers

KELOWNA – It’s the tax phone fraud that just won’t go away.

RCMP in the central Okanagan continue to get complaints about calls from people claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency who say taxes are owed.

Police say the scammers use threatening and aggressive language to try to scare victims into paying fictitious CRA debts.

Immediate payments by credit card or other forms of money transfer are demanded under false threats of court charges, jail or deportation.

Kelowna RCMP have provided the following guidelines:

The Canada Revenue Agency
• Never requests prepaid credit cards;
• Never asks for information about your passport, health services card or driver’s licence;
• Never leaves personal information on your answering machine or voice mail service;

When in doubt, ask yourself the following:
• Is there a reason the CRA may be calling? Do I have a tax balance outstanding?
• Is the requester asking for information I would not include on my tax returns?
• Is the requester asking for information the CRA already has on file?

People who receive the scam phone calls should hang up and report it to the RCMP’s Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre toll free at 1-888-495-8501.

http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm