Canada Revenue Agency scam making the rounds, OPP warn

OPP News Release Follows: 


OPP WARN OF CANADA REVENUE AGENCY SCAM

(RED LAKE, ON) – The Red Lake Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) remind residents to beware of a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) scam in which someone, claiming to be a representative from the CRA, calls to inform you that you owe the government money and that payment has to be made immediately.

The OPP would like to provide some additional information to better equip residents of Red Lake 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?

For more information on fraud, call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or http://www.antifraudcentre.ca.