On October 29, 2018, Grand Falls-Windsor RCMP received a complaint from a local woman who said she received a call from someone claiming to represent the Canada Revenue Agency(CRA) advising that there was a warrant for her arrest for tax evasion. The scammer asked the woman for $5000 to avoid arrest by the RCMP.
The scammer then advised he would make a 3-way call to the RCMP to advise that the woman would be making payment. He asked the woman for the local RCMP detachment number, which she provided.
A short while later the woman received an incoming call with caller identification matching the local RCMP detachment number. The woman spoke to a man who identified himself as a RCMP officer and told her to pay CRA or she would be brought to jail.
After this call ended, the woman received another call from a man saying that he was with CRA telling her how she could make payment by purchasing Google Play cards.
RCMP warn that this is a scam and that scammers continue to come up with new ways to intimidate and to seem believable. If something seems suspicious, it often is.
If you receive a call similar to this of someone demanding money, please end the call and contact CRA directly to confirm the legitimacy prior to making any sort of payment. CRA would never accept payment in the form of a Google Play card or similar type of payment.
If you have provided money to scammers please report this to your local RCMP detachment. To report what you believe to be a phone scam please contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or by clicking the following link:
http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerin...