Vancouver police are warning the public about a new scam, one that appears to victims to be originating from the Vancouver police.
Police say the fraudsters are using a variation of the old Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) scam.
But there is a brazen new twist: the scammers are using “spoofing” to make it look like they are calling from the Vancouver police.
The scam involves two telephone calls to the victims.
In the first call, the scammer claims to be a CRA agent and tells the victim to look up the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) non-emergency number.
Victims then receive a second call that appears to be coming from the VPD number they’d recently looked up.
A scammer then presents themself as a police officer, and gives out a fake badge number.
The fake officer tells the victim that their social insurance number has been used to create credit card accounts with large balances.
The victim is told that they are responsible for paying off the debt, and are told to do it with Bitcoin or gift cards.
Police are reminding the public that they will never call you from the VPD’s non-emergency line, and that officers will never ask for payment.
Anyone who gets one of these calls is asked to hang up immediately, and to report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online or toll free at 1-888-495-8501.
Anyone who has been a victim of fraud is asked to contact Vancouver police.