Another telephone scam has hit the Shuswap, this one referring targeted recipients back to their local RCMP.
Sicamous RCMP Cpl. J.R. Lechky says the scam works like this:
The victim receives a phone call from someone claiming to be with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and stating money is owed. Afterwards, the victim receives another telephone call, this time from someone identifying themselves as a police officer with the local RCMP detachment.
“The police officer advises the victim they have an outstanding warrant and they need to pay money to make the warrant go away,” said Lechky. “Now the twist, the number that appears on the caller ID is the local detachment phone number.
“We would like to let people know the RCMP is not going to be making phone calls like this requesting money for anything, especially acting as a collection agency.”
People are encouraged to take the appropriate steps to ensure the call is legitimate before they send any money.
The CRA recommends the same.
“Taxpayers should be vigilant when they receive, either by telephone, mail, text message or email, a fraudulent communication that claims to be from the CRA requesting personal information such as a social insurance number, credit card number, bank account number or passport number,” states the CRA, adding “Cases of fraudulent communication could also involve threatening or coercive language to scare individuals into paying fictitious debt to the CRA.”
Audio samples of known CRA telephone scams can be listened to at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/scrty/frdprvntn/frdlnttlphn-eng.html.
People can report these scams to the Canada Revenue Agency at 1-866-809-6841, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.