Hope RCMP is warning residents of another telephone scam.
Police have received two reports in the last week of fraudsters posing as Canada Revenue agents on the phone. The scammer advises people their taxes are in arrears and that if a payment isn’t made immediately with Visa pre-pay cards they will be arrested.
“This scam has been prevalent in several Lower Mainland communities in the past several weeks,” said RCMP Cpl. Len vanNieuwenhuizen.
“This is not a standard operating procedure for police and Canada Revenue Agency. The police do not deal with income tax issues.”
Canada Revenue Agency has very specific procedures to communicate with taxpayers.
The public are encouraged to view these procedures at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/nwsrm/lrts/2014/l140307-eng.html.
Should anyone be the recipient of a suspected fraudulent call they’re asked to report it to the local RCMP office and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center at info@antifraudcentre.ca.