This will give the indication that the email is NOT legitimate.
If you hover over the link that reads Canada Revenue Agency PORTAL, you will notice the URL is a series of letters and numbers that make no sense at all such as .(scam) precisely. Until you realize that the CRA only emails people to advise that they have mail waiting for them in their M圜RA Account, then you know that it’s best to mark it spam and move on.īelow are a few examples of scam emails, text messages or online forms:Īnother example of fraudulent emails you may receive is hereįraudulent Online Refund forms samples here. When the message includes those words, it’s time to hang up.īut what about the emails/text messages/online forms? They look legitimate. These are some of the best indications that the person you’re speaking to isn’t an actual CRA representative. They may threaten you on the phone or leave voice messages which have words like “criminal”, “jail”, “lawyer” and “police”.
They used to have a live person call, and while as a former CRA employee, I used to revel in stringing them along asking a ton of questions Canadians have lost countless fortunes to these phone calls. Then it was scam emails where a foreign prince needs a bridge loan. Today, it could be a criminal trying to convince you that they are calling from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). And for mercy’s sake, don’t ever give over exploitable data like names, tax ID numbers, or financial information to these wily, reprehensible cybercriminals.In the old days, when receiving a telemarketing phone call it was duct cleaning. Never, never, never click on links embedded in unsolicited emails. They would send you a letter by snail mail with a phone number to call one of their representatives. The CRA will never send you an unsolicited email asking you for information it will already have on file, were it a legitimate email communication.Īlthough the email messages look real, using the logos, language, and look of a true CRA communication, it is important to remember, again, that the Canada Revenue Agency wouldn’t just send you an unsolicited email regarding a tax refund. Cybercriminals are getting craftier and cleverer in their scareware, malware, and phishing attempts to get you to hand them your private information so they can commit ID theft and rob you of untold amounts of money and credibility. The website the link points you to is a phony site set up to mimic the CRA website. Flag them as a phishing scam (If your email server program has that function) or at least mark them as spam immediately. The messages are NOT from the Canada Revenue Agency, so whatever you do, do not click on the provided link. One actual CRA scam email is shown in the image at left. But less aware and perhaps more financially desperate types will likely click on the link and give over their personal and financial info to these cybercriminals. Cybersecurity and Web-savvy people in general will most likely discard this email, as they should. There are two huge red flags in this scenario that will warn off anyone at all clued into cyber safety: One, the (fake) CRA has you click on a link in an unsolicited email and two (an even bigger red flag), they ask you to provide your credit card and personal information.
The email messages are also currently targeting unwitting recipients in the UK, United States, and other territories. It then asks you to provide personal and financial information in order to process the alleged refund.
The messages claim that the recipient is eligible for a tax refund in the amount of x CAD, and then has you click on a link for where to claim it. It appears at first glance to be legitimate, but on closer inspection and scrutiny it will become evident halfway cyber-savvy that the email messages currently floating around the Net purporting to be from the Canadian Revenue Agency are indeed a phishing scam.