THUNDER BAY – LIVING – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Financial Crime Unit (FCU) would like to remind the public of an ongoing scam which is being perpetrated by imposters claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) employees [Formerly known as Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)], as well as a number of police agencies across Canada.
Fraudsters impersonate the government officials and/or the police by telephone or by email. Fraudsters are either phishing for your identification and/or asking that outstanding taxes and/or fees be paid through the following means: money service business (Western Union or MoneyGram), electronic funds transfer (EFT), pre-paid credit cards, and iTunes gift cards.
These types of frauds attempt to extort money from the victims through a number of different threats, these include, but are not limited to the following: seizure of assets, arrests, deportation, assaults, kidnapping, and murder. These types of frauds are being perpetuated coast to coast, and have impacted both male and female victims from many different age groups and cultural backgrounds.
If you are a victim, the RCMP encourages you to contact the appropriate authorities. If you, a friend or family member has either received a call or an email from a fraudster please report it to the Canadian Anti- Fraud Centre (CAFC). You have two ways to make a report to the CAFC; either by phone at 1-888-495- 8501 (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) or through their online reporting tool at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm.
If you, a friend or a family member has suffered a financial loss as a result of this type of fraud, please contact your local police.
When you receive a suspect phone call from someone purporting to be the CRA, IRCC, RCMP or other government agency please take the following steps:
- IF YOU HAVE CALL DISPLAY ON YOUR PHONE, NOTE THE NUMBER WHERE THE CALL CAME FROM.
- HANG
- LOOK UP THE REAL NUMBER FOR THE AGENCY IN
- CALL THE AGENCY TO CONFIRM OR REFUTE YOUR
- REPORT THE FRAUDULENT
LASTLY, if you are reading this, please do your part in sharing this message with your friends and family and help us to create more awareness of this type of fraud.
