Calgarians of South Asian descent ongoing target of fraudsters…

Fraudsters, posing as Canada Revenue Agency collections representatives, continue to target members of Calgary’s South Asian community.

For at least the past month, these impersonators have been calling Calgarians of South Asian descent, advising them that they have ignored written warnings that they owe CRA money, and they are calling to collect.

The victims are instructed to purchase pre-paid debit cards for large sums of money and, while on the phone with the fraudster, tell them the number of the card and the PIN access number, providing the fraudsters with immediate, relatively untraceable access to the funds.

The victims are told that if they do not comply, the police will come to their house, arrest them and put them in jail for a considerable length of time.

A variation on this scam is where fraudsters threaten victims with deportation if they do not comply.

The Calgary Police Service does not perform this type of collection enforcement for Canada Revenue Agency, and the CRA do not use these tactics to collect unpaid taxes.

If you are contacted by phone and threatened in this way, do not comply with these demands. If you are concerned these demands are real, take down full contact information from the caller and contact police or Canada Revenue Agency directly.

Once you have complied with a fraudster’s request, it is very difficult for the police or anyone else to help you get your money back, and you continue to be a target for these individuals into the future.

If you believe you are being targeted, or have been the victim of any fraud, please contact police.

For tips from Canada Revenue Agency as to how to avoid being defrauded by people claiming to represent their organization, visit the CRA website’s Beware of fraudulent communications page at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ntcs/bwr-eng.html.

If you have responded to a fraudulent communication you believed to be from the CRA and have become a victim of fraud, contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre by email at info@antifraudcentre.ca or call 1-888-495-8501.