Taxman Beating Down Your Door? Maybe Not…

There is an aggressive and frightening telephone scam where someone purporting to be a representative of Canada Revenue Agency claims that you have a balance owing with CRA and they are going to send an agent to pick up a cheque – accompanied by an RCMP officer with a warrant for your arrest for tax evasion.

Scammers can be very clever and sometimes may somehow be able to obtain accurate information about you in order to make themselves sound legitimate. However convincing the caller may sound, should you receive a phone call from someone purporting to be from CRA, always telephone CRA back at one of their verified phone numbers (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cntct/phn-eng.html) and speak to an agent to confirm if the caller and their request/ demand is legitimate before you give out any personal or financial information or make any payments.

For more information on how to protect yourself against fraud, see CRA’s fraud information web page: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/scrty/frdprvntn/menu-eng.html.