No, you don’t owe the CRA $20,000 in iTunes gift cards

Attention last minute tax-filers: the Canada Revenue Agency will now accept payment for your back taxes in iTunes gift cards – or so scammers will have you believe.

A Calgary woman was swindled for $20,000 from a man claiming to work for the tax agency last week. The fraudster called her cellphone and said an arrest warrant had been issued for her due to unpaid taxes. He ordered her to purchase iTunes gift cards and give him the activation codes.

But it’s not an isolated incident. As the May 2 tax deadline looms putting extra stress on last minute filers, scammers line up to prey on Canadians.

According to the Calgary Police Service’s Economic Crimes unit, scammers claiming they were from the CRA have duped 131 Calgarians for close to $600,000 since February last year.

As of Tuesday this week, the RCMP in Saskatchewan say they’ve fielded more than 200 reports of people getting suspicious calls saying they’re from the CRA.

In 2015, the Canada Revenue Agency scam was number one on the Better Business Bureau’s top ten scams list, and it’s out in full force this year.

“We get a lot of inquiries from people who have been asked or received something (from the CRA) either a phone call or email and are smart enough to at least seek out some advice before they do anything… which is a good thing,” says Ric Borski, president of the BBB of Mid-Western and Central Ontario.

The biggest red flag, he says, lies in getting a call to begin with.

“Generally speaking, they only send out notifications by mail,” says Borski. “They don’t make phone calls, they don’t send emails unless you’ve solicited that from them.”

He points out that anytime you receive a call or email asking for banking information, it should probably set off warning bells.

“Your social insurance number, banking information, things like that… you shouldn’t ever give up over the phone to anybody or by email for that matter,” he says.

Another red flag is if they ask you to pay in an unconventional way, like an iTunes gift card or through Western Union.

“If you’re paying them money, generally you have to make it payable to the Receiver General not just to somebody at a mail drop or whatever,” he says. “And they don’t do things like threaten to send the police to your home… these are things they never do – people should be aware of that.”

If you do get a call claiming it’s from the CRA, Borski says “not to panic.”

“The best thing for people to do is to not do anything initially – phone the CRA and confirm what the situation really is,” he says. “Find out if you do in fact owe them anything or if they owe you anything.”

And if you do get duped by one of these scammers call the police and anti-fraud centre.

“Call (them) right away,” he says. “It’s a police matter, they’re stealing your money.”