It's the height of tax season, and that means Canadians are
shifting focus to getting their personal tax returns sent to the
Canada Revenue Agency ("CRA"), if they
have not done so already. During annual tax preparations, most
Canadians expect some correspondence from the CRA— more so
than any other part of the year.
Consequently, fraudsters often exploit this expectation during
tax season to deceive taxpayers into disclosing valuable personal
information such as a social insurance number, credit card number,
bank account number, or passport number.
Here are some tips, so you can avoid falling prey to these
brazen scams.
Two prevalent scams are:
- Telemarketing scams: Fraudsters attempt to
gain an individual's personal information by pretending to be a
CRA agent, calling the individual over the phone and using
aggressive or coercive tactics such as threatening arrest if a
"debt" is not paid.
