North Bay Police logoNorth Bay Police, along with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Canada Revenue Agency and other police services are warning residents about a telephone or email scam from fraudsters who claim to be from Canada Revenue Agency.

Police says they’ve received reports of residents being targeted by telephone.

They say no one has fallen victim to this scam and suggest you simply hang up if receive one of these calls.

The following information was forwarded by city police:

Tax Scam Pitch

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is the central agency in Canada that collects information on frauds in Canada. It warns that whether by telephone or by email, the tax scam pitch involves one of two variations:

  1. The fraudsters are looking for personal information or asking that outstanding taxes be paid by a money service business or by pre-paid debit or credit cards.
  2. There is notification by phone or email from the “CRA” claiming there is a refund pending. In order for the recipient to receive the refund they must provide personal information.

How to Protect Yourself

To better equip taxpayers on how to identify scams, Canada Revenue Agency has posted a series of guidelines on their website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ntcs/bwr-eng.html.

They have also recently posted the following image on social media that illustrates how to spot a fake email.

tax scam