By Corey Fischer

Tax Scam Takes Victim for $11,000

Jan 22, 2018 | 4:09 PM

A Vernon resident found out about a tax scam the hard way — after losing thousands of dollars.

Police say the victim was bilked out of 11-thousand dollars after getting an email and phone call from someone claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, saying that he owed 11-thousand in unpaid taxes.

The victim was told he would go to jail, or that the police would show up at his home, if he didn’t pay that day.

He was directed to make the payment using a Bitcoin terminal, and a transfer was made, and only after that occurred did the victim realize he’d been scammed.

He reported it to police, who couldn’t help, other than offer others advice that the CRA will not contact you by phone and does not accept Bitcoin or any form of gift card as payment.

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Tax season is upon us and there has been a significant increase in these types of scams. The scam artists will gain your confidence, leading you to believe that you will be penalized by police if the money is not paid immediately, says Vernon RCMP Cst. Kelly Brett.

“The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP is asking that this message be made viral,” says Brett. “If each person shared this message with five friends or family via text or social media, then we could better educate the public of scams such as this. Says Cst. Brett. Multiple RCMP releases have warned public in the past about the CRA / Bitcoin scam, however we are still seeing a significant increase where people are being victimized. ”

RCMP say the CRA will NOT request personal information, of any kind, by email. “They will NOT divulge any of your information, of any kind, to another unless formal authorization is provided by you. The CRA will NOT leave any personal information on an answering machine. There is other important information, on the Canada Revenue Agency website, that you as a taxpayer should know.”

If you want to confirm that a CRA representative has contacted you, call the CRA at 1-800-959-8281 for individual concerns or 1-800-959-5525 for business-related calls.

by Corey Fischer