Canada Revenue Agency Scam Hits East Zorra Tavistock

Friday, 8 January 2016 11:40

Police are warning the public to be wary of scam artists looking to gain your personal information.

EAST ZORRA TAVISTOCK - Oxford County OPP are warning the public about a popular scam that is making the rounds in East Zorra Tavistock.

Police were contacted by a resident who received a phone call from a scammer pretending to represent the Canada Revenue Agency. The resident told police the man was very aggressive on the phone claiming to be a CRA inspector. Because of the anger of the caller, the resident provided the caller his Social Insurance Number.

After providing the SIN the victim was told that he could speak to a CRA lawyer over the phone and the victim ended up talking to another very aggressive scammer. When the victim refused to provide anymore information and asked them to contact his lawyer they became suspicious and called police. OPP are warning the public about this popular scam and to never give out personal information over the phone unless you are 100 percent certain you know where it is going.

The OPP would like to provide some additional information to better equip residents of Oxford County to identify those communications that do not come from the CRA. The following general guidelines are provided.

The Canada Revenue Agency does not do the following:

- The CRA will not request personal information of any kind from a taxpayer by email.

- The CRA will not divulge taxpayer information to another person unless formal authorization is provided by the taxpayer.

- The CRA will not leave any personal information or threatening messages on an answering machine.

When in doubt, ask yourself the following:

- Am I expecting any calls from the CRA?

- Does this sound too good to be true?

- Is the caller able to identify themselves with an ID number that you can verify?

- Is the requester asking for information I would not include with my 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 address?

- Am I confident I know who is asking for the information?