The Canada Revenue Agency warns residents to be on their guard following a surge in phone scams where the caller claims to be from the CRA.
These calls are fraudulent and could result in identity and financial theft, the agency says.
Recent calls involve threatening or aggressive language to scare people into paying a fictitious debt to agency. Callers say taxes are owed and request immediate payment by credit card or convincing victims to purchase a prepaid credit card and call back immediately with the information. The victim is often threatened with court charges, jail or deportation.
CRA never requests prepaid credit cards, never asks for information about your passport, health card or driver’s licence, never shares your details with another person, unless you’ve provided the authorization and never leaves personal information on your answering machine or asks you to leave a message with personal information.
Report fraud at antifraudcentre.ca online.