I-Tunes CRA scam

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Thousand of Canadians are falling victim to a scam that says you owe money to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Over the last two years, the scam has stolen 4.8 million dollars from Canadians.

This year alone, over 12 thousand Canadians have reported to police that they have been a target of the CRA scam.

The over seas scam has imposters claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency placing calls, emails and snail mail threatening Canadians.

“They spoof their phone number to make it look like it’s a local number but it’s not. They didn’t even know what the CRA stood for or the RCMP yet they were telling people that they were going to be arrested.” says Troy Izlakar from the Halton Regional Police.

The latest scam involves buying I-tunes cards to pay off the supposed debt. Victims buy the cards and provide the contact with the serial number. The money is then collected by the thieves.

The CRA will never call demanding payment via I-tunes card, Western Union or E-Transfer.

According to Izlakar, “Police say the most important thing is to never click on a link that is attached in an email unless you are 100 percent sure it’s from a reputable organization. But there are some steps you can rake to tell if it’s a fake.”

The RCMP have arrested 14 people in the GTA involved in the over seas scam when they were picking up the money from Western Union but no arrests have been made in relation to the I-tunes CRA scam because there is no physical interaction and police don’t have the technology to track where the original phone call came from.

The RCMP believe that there are more co-conspirators right here in Ontario and they are appealing to the public that if you know anyone who was involved in the CRA scam to contact either the RCMP, your local police department or Crime Stoppers and the main message is be aware and check the facts.