CRA will not phone you about owing money! If there is ever any tax money outstanding on your personal or business account, CRA will send a letter to your home address they have on file. You will get a brown envelope asking you to call them first. If someone calls you from the “CRA” most likely it is a phone scam.
Common Phone Scam Tactics:
- Extremely aggressive speech. They’ll try to make you panic over your finances. (A government agency would never conduct itself like a high-pressure salesman!)
- Threats to arrest you or get the police to go to your home if you don’t pay ASAP (CRA has no power to do this.)
- Telling you not to talk to anyone else while you’re on the phone with the scammer (entrapment)
- Telling you to go straight home to look up personal/banking information
- They will hang up on you first if it sounds like you’re not complying, or are too suspicious of them
- Scammers may also try similar methods with text messages and emails
Protect Yourself and Your Personal Information:
- Do not disclose your SIN or BN (CRA already has this on file, they wouldn’t ask for it on the phone)
- Do not disclose information about your bank account numbers, credit cards, etc.
- If you receive a scam phone call (or what you suspect might be one), report it to the police or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (contact info below)
- You can call CRA yourself and ask if anything is wrong with your account (contact info below)
- Tell them to call your Rep – that’s us – don’t tell them who your rep is the real CRA knows and they have no problem calling us to work through issues.
- If we have done your taxes we are on your account as a Rep.
- If we do your business books we got you to fill out the RC59 and we are your Rep.
- If you really do owe money we have ways to pay it without giving the CRA any information- they do not want it over the phone anyway.
CANADA REVENUE AGENCY
Phone: 1-800-959-8281 (individual tax enquiries line)
Business: 1-800-959-5525 (business tax enquiry line)
My Account for Individuals: sign up to access your personal tax information online
Fraud section of the CRA website with examples of scam calls.
THE CANADIAN ANTI-FRAUD CENTRE
Phone: 1-888-495-8501
Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 4:45 PM (Eastern Time)
Online Fraud Reporting System: requires either a GC Key or an online banking Sign-in Partner
What to Do if You’re a Victim: Fraud Center
If you have any questions call us and we can help you with it – do not let a phone call stress you out – if they are aggressive it is a phone scam.