The Toronto Police Service is warning the public of telephone calls or emails that claim to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) but are not

Public Safety Alert, Police remind the public to be cautious of scams that purportedly involve the Canada Revenue Agency

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - 6:29 AM
Financial Crimes:  416-808-7300

The Toronto Police Service is warning the public of telephone calls or emails that claim to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) but are not. These are fraudulent scams that could result in identity and financial theft.

The public may receive, either by telephone, mail, text message or email, a fraudulent communication that claims to be from the CRA. 

In all of these cases, the communication requests personal information. These fraudulent communications typically insist that personal information is needed so that the taxpayer can receive a refund or benefit payment. 

Other communications urge taxpayers to visit a fake CRA website where the taxpayer is then asked to verify their identity by entering personal information.

These are scams and taxpayers should never respond to these fraudulent communications, or click on any of the links provided.

Please keep in mind the following:
• the CRA will not send emails containing any links
• the CRA never request taxpayers to attend and purchase any gift cards 
• the CRA will not request personal information of any kind from a taxpayer by email or text message
• the CRA never divulges taxpayer information to another person unless formal authorization is provided by the taxpayer
• the CRA never leaves any personal information on an answering machine or asks taxpayers to leave a message with their personal information on an answering machine

For more information on scams, visit http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/crimeprevention/ .

For more news, visit TPSnews.ca.

Constable Caroline de Kloet, Corporate Communications, for Detective Gail Regan, Financial Crimes