Fort McMurray residents are being warned to be aware of a phone scam where people are claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Wood Buffalo RCMP said they’ve received a few reports of residents in the region being targets of the “CRA scam,” where the scammer tells the person they owe the CRA money and to pay in iTune gift cards or face arrest.
The RCMP is reminding residents to protect themselves against scams and frauds by following CRA tips on how:
- If you receive a call saying you owe money to the CRA, you can call us or check My Account to be sure.
- If you have signed up for online mail, the CRA will send a registration confirmation email to the address you provided for online mail service for an individual or a business, and send an email to the address you provided to notify you when new online mail is available to view in the CRA’s secure online services portal.
The CRA will not 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, or leave personal information on an answering machine.
If the agency is able to confirm a person’s information has been compromised, it will work to stop its fraudulent use.
People are encouraged to report deceptive telemarketing to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online or by calling 1-888-495-8501.