CRA Cautions Taxpayers of Canada to be wary of Scam Emails

Montrealgazette.com reported on 3rd March, 2014 stating that Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Canada's official tax collecting agency, is urging taxpayers in the country to be on the lookout for fake emails impersonating it.

The message containing CRA's official logo and beleaguered with spelling and grammar mistakes reads: "Our records indicate insufficient (sic) information for your income tax return."

As a result, the email recipient is told that he's been exempted from the Canadian tax reporting and withholdings on claims to be payd to him.

The message asks the recipient to click on an enclosed link to fill a form for applying tax return.

Montrealgazette.com published news on 3rd March, 2014 quoting Corporal Louis Robertson, Manager of CAFC (Canadian Anti-Fraud Center), North Bay, Ontario as saying that the RCMP's (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Canadian Anti-Fraud Center (CAFC) has been inundated with information about the email scam.

Robertson said that the purpose of the fraud is to seek credit card and passport information to steal identity.

He said that cybercriminals masterminding such email scams could be located anywhere in the world due to which it becomes extremely tricky to track them down.

Disassociating itself from the unending scam email campaign, CRA states on its official website that it (CRA) will never request for any form of personal information from a taxpayer via email, as is happening in the aforementioned scam email case.

CRA further states on its official website: If you are in doubt, ask the following questions, Am I eligible of extra money from the CRA?, Does this offer from the CRA sound too good to be true?, Is it asking any information which is not required for tax return?, Is it asking any information which I know that CRA already has about me?, How did it get my email address?, and Do I know who is asking the information?.

However, if you have already been stung by such fraudulent emails and become an unfortunate victim, CRA requests you to contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's CAFC via email at info@antifraudcentre.ca or call the police on its official hotline number 1-888-495-8501 and then permanently delete the bogus email.

» SPAMfighter News - 3/10/2014