HALIFAX – Fraudsters are changing their game plan in Nova Scotia, and are now using phone calls to target people and scam them out of their money.
This comes after a slew of online CRA scams earlier this year.
RCMP across Nova Scotia have responded to several complaints from people across the province who have had fraudsters call them claiming to be representatives from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and scamming them for money.
READ MORE: Canada Revenue Agency warns of recent scam involving money transfers
Angela Hasey recently had a close call with a fraudster, claiming to be from the Canada Revenua Agency claims department, indicated that the call would be recorded and insisting that she owed the CRA almost $1,600 from her return from 2008-2009.
“He asked me if I had received my notice of reassessment with the blue paper, regarding some federal tax that was not claimed on my 2008 and 2009 forms,” said Hasey.
Hasey said that was around the time she had started doing her own tax filing at home using QuikTax, and thought “oh, well maybe I missed something.”
The fraudster then indicated that it was apparent that she missed revenue and that the money would need to be settled right away, and that she had two options to pay. She could either pay it right away, with the instructions he would give, or she could decide to go through the courts.
“And then he said ‘either way it must be settled today, and if you decide to go through the courts a sheriff will be coming to arrest you, handcuff you and put you in jail overnight,'” said Hasey.
The man told her not to contact her lawyer unless she decided to go through the courts, be arrested by the sheriff and be taken to jail.
Hasey said her mind was not only wondering what she’d missed, but was worrying about what it would mean for her family if she were to be arrested, so she wanted to have it taken care of immediately.
The fraudster told her to go to the bank, take out the amount owed, and because of the short amount of time and not wanting a hold on the money, to mail it through a money gram, which she had never done before.
“Those things all made sense to me,” Hasey said.
She then went to the bank, very flustered, and withdrew the money and then went to the post office to mail the money. Hasey remained on the line with the man the entire time, for fear that if she lost connection he would send the sheriff’s car to arrest her.
He told Hasey to fill out the money gram ‘person-to-person’ rather than filling it out to Canada Revenue Agency, because it was in a different claims part of the department.
“If they had asked why I was sending this, that I was just to indicate that it was just for personal purposes,” said Hasey.
At that point, with so much running through her mind, Hasey was getting very overwhelmed, and the post office staff noticed her distress and started questions. They soon concluded that she was being scammed, and though it was her choice, they thought the RCMP should be called.
“That’s when things sort of, I was sort of, having a lot more sort of a breakdown – what am I doing? There were so many red flags coming up in my mind – why did I do this?” said Hasey.
Hasey remained on the line with the fraudster while the post office staff calmed her down and called the RCMP who advised her to not send the money.
“There were red flags along the way but I didn’t see them, I guess I was so afraid,” Hasey said.
Hasey said the man has called back again twice, and one time had his ‘supervisor’ call, demanding that she send money.
READ MORE: Anti-fraud centre warns of CRA scams spike; here’s one to look out for
In the past, fraudsters have sent emails to people, claiming they were owed money and to follow a link to allow for a direct deposit. The next steps involved plugging in a name, SIN number and address, and the scam website then proceeded to ask for credit card information. These scams have lead to identity and financial fraud.
Nova Scotia mounties said they have been receiving about 10-12 calls a day from people who have received calls from fraudsters posing at representatives of CRA.
“The caller calls and says if you don’t go to the money and wire money to this particular account right now, we’re going to send the sheriff to your home and they’re going to arrest you and seize your property,” said Cpl. Greg Church of the Nova Scotia RCMP.
He said it’s the scare tactics that suck people in.
The RCMP said a person should ask his/herself the following questions if she/he is in doubt about a call from the CRA:
- Am I expecting additional money from the CRA?
- Does this sound too good to be true?
- Is the requester asking for information I would not include on a tax return?
- Is the requester asking for information I know the CRA already has on file for me?
- How did the requester get my email or telephone number?
- Am I confident I know who is asking for the information?
- Is there a reason that CRA may be calling? Do I have a tax balance outstanding?
If you want more information about security of taxpayer information and other examples f fraudulent communications visit http://www.cra.ca/security.
If you think you’ve received a fraudulent call, inform the RCMP immediately.
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