A Lower Mainland woman, who is visiting her mother in Kelowna, is ringing the alarm about a telephone scam targeting seniors and using the pretense of being from the Canadian Revenue Agency to scare people into giving up personal information.
Karoline Koch said she was at her mother’s home last week when a call came through with a recorded message saying it was from the CRA. The recorded message said a lawsuit had been initiated against the person being called. It said if the person receiving the message did not call back immediately, a warrant would be issued for their arrest.
“I think a lot of seniors may fall for this,” said Koch, whose mother is a senior.
Koch phoned the police to report the call but said she received a rather curt response. She said the person who answered at the police station said the RCMP know about the scam, it has been going on for years and is the scammer callers back, have a whistle handy and blow it loudly into the the phone.
“I was a little surprised,” said Koch about the response.
According to the Canadian Revenue Agency, scams using its name are not new and there have been, and continue to be many variations. But there are ways Canadians can protect themselves.
The biggest is by not divulging any personal or financial information over the phone or by email.
According to information posted on the CRA website, the agency will never send an email with a link and ask you to divulge personal or financial information, ask for personal or financial information by email or text, request payments by prepaid credit card or ask you to leave personal or financial information on an answering machine.
It says if you receive a call saying you owe money to the CRA, you should call agency back to check.
With approximately 96 per cent of Canadian seniors aged 70 and older using the Internet at least once a week, the number of scams aimed at seniors is increasing.
A recent survey by Home Instead Senior Care found 64 per cent of Canadian seniors have been the victim or a target of online scammers.
Koch said she is concerned about scams aimed at seniors, like her mom, in part because seniors cane vulnerable and trusting when they get such a call or an email.
She said if she had not been there, it’s quite possible her mom would have called back the number that was left, and may have divulged personal or financial information.
She said the call received on her mom’s phone—a landline— came from a number in Arizona, despite saying it was from the Canadian Revenue Agency.
The CRA advises anyone who gets such a call to phone the police, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or report it online at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca.