KAWARTHA LAKES-The City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service say they have been receiving daily reports form the public regarding attempted frauds.
“As tax season rapidly approaches perpetrators of the “CRA Tax Scam” continue to ramp up their aggressive tactics in our area. Kawartha Lakes Police are seeing an increase in the number of people contacting them with regards to the scam and trying to reassure themselves that they do not owe the Canada Revenue Agency money.” said Constable Dave Murtha in an press release today.
Police say residents are being contacted by telephone, email and text messaging and the alleged scammers are using high pressure tactics to have the potential victims forward them money and/or personal financial information.
Acccording to Murtha the call or message starts out very civil but when the victim begins to question the motive of the caller things change. “The callers will up the ante and resort to becoming verbally abusive; usually threatening arrest by the police for non-compliance with their demands.” Murtha states.
Police remind members of the community to ignore these inquiries until they can verify the identity of the caller. There are occasions when The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will contact people about their taxes. That is why it is so important to verify who you are speaking with before you provide any information. Do not provide any credit card information, social insurance card information until this verification has taken place.
Find out more about how to protect yourself here: http://kawarthalakespolice.com/2018/03/07/tax-scam-alert/
