Not even the police are immune to the income tax scam
RCMP detachment in Kimberley, B.C., received a call from a scammer asking them to pay back taxes
It seems not even the cops are immune to phone call scams.
This week, the RCMP detachment in Kimberley, B.C., received a call from someone claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, saying that back taxes were owed and that an arrest warrant would be issued if the money was not paid.
Detachment commander Sgt. Chris Newel didn't take the call, but, luckily, the clerk who did, identified it as a scam right away.
"Had it been myself, I might have engaged them a little bit more, just to taunt them a bit, ask them who's going to get the warrant, because I have a habit of doing that," Newel said.
"Here we are the mounted police, the police force of Canada, and they're targeting us without any idea of who they've actually phoned."
Newel posted on Facebook the same afternoon, in the hope people would see how widespread the problem of phone scams are. The post has been shared over 800 times, and Newel says it has reached more people than any of their previous posts.
"I had no idea that it was going to take off as it did," he said.
"This is sort of reinforcing that it happens to everybody."
Same scam, new twist
In fact, the problem is so widespread that this week, the Better Business Bureau released a list of the Top 10 Scams of 2017, and the income tax scam was on it.
According to the bureau, more than $5 million has already been reported lost as the scam continues to proliferate.
Danielle Primrose, the president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Mainland B.C. says there is a new twist on the scam this year — some scammers are demanding payment in bitcoin.
"We want Canadians to know that the Canada Revenue Agency doesn't do business this way and that no government agency accepts bitcoins," Primrose said at a news conference on Wednesday.
With files from Radio West and Sarah Penton