The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is warning of a new scam that targets victims by including personal information like their name, date of birth or social insurance number.
Scammers are posing as the CRA during tax season. Here’s what to look out for
Scammers often pose as the CRA and might even have sensitive personal information like your SIN. But never send money without confirmation, experts warn.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is warning of a new scam that targets victims by including personal information like their name, date of birth or social insurance number.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is warning of a new scam that targets victims by including personal information like their name, date of birth or social insurance number and requesting money while posing as the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Experts are concerned about the rising prevalence of scams, especially as more institutions face cyber attacks that leak sensitive personal information. Social insurance numbers, addresses and phone numbers have been taken in cyber attacks that have targeted everything from hospitals to zoos. A massive hack of Capital One exposed nearly a million Canadian social insurance numbers in 2019. And even when that information isn’t immediately used, it can be compiled into databases, containing billions of records, that are then sold on the dark web.
If governments, with all their resources and staffing, are vulnerable, how can you protect yourself? Here’s what you need to know for some common tax season scams.
What do CRA scams look like?
The CRA is warning of a number of recent scams sent by text and email that contain personal information of the target, with scammers posing as the CRA asking for bank information, payments or asking victims to click on links.
“The CRA will not use text messages or instant messages to start a conversation with you about your taxes, benefits, or My Account,” the government agency wrote online.
Hackers can also come up as the CRA in your phone contacts when calling or texting, Jeff Horncastle, a spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, warned, and will often ask victims to click on links or provide sensitive personal information.
“It’s hard for us to say exactly how they got possession of the social insurance number. With that being said, obviously the victim was the target was a victim of identity theft, either through a data breach or maybe even another phishing campaign,” he said.
How to avoid CRA scams
“If you receive an email from your tax agency that seems too good to be true, it probably is,” Joanna Schoneveld, Interac Corp.‘s fraud management leader, told the Star.
Scammers will pretend to be government agencies like the CRA to bait victims into clicking links or giving away personal information that can result in identity fraud, she warned.
Always log in directly to the CRA from the agency’s website, Schoneveld advised, and never respond or click on any links.
Who are the most vulnerable to scams?
New immigrants are often the targets of scams, Schoneveld said. An Interac study from November of last year found that more than half of new Canadian families were targets of financial fraud.
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Newcomers are especially vulnerable Horncastle said, because they might not be familiar with how the government agencies, like the CRA, operate.
“They may not know that the CRA doesn’t send payments by text message, or that they don’t call and threaten you on the phone,” he added. “So, automatically, they’re at risk.”
What to do if you think you’ve been scammed
The first step for victims of fraud or scams, according to the CRA, is to contact the local police service.
If the scammers had your social insurance number, you should contact Service Canada at 1-866-274-6627 and contact one of Canada’s two credit bureaus, either Equifax or TransUnion, to put a fraud alert on your credit report.
With your social insurance number, “criminals can start applying for credit cards and cellphones or bank accounts in your name,” Horncastle warned. Notifying government agencies and credit bureaus can help to mitigate the damage.
You can also report scams to the CRA, either online or over the phone, if you think your online account as been compromised.
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