Anti-Fraud Awareness ramps up during tax time

Now that people are starting to file their taxes, a ramp-up in tax fraud scams is bound to go up.

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is warning Canadians about the different methods that fraudsters use to target their victims.

• Spoofing: the caller-ID that is displayed on your phone, the sender address in an email, and often mimics legitimate websites, etc.
• Sense of urgency: targeting seniors whose loved one/friend is in trouble and needs financial help immediately.
• Threats: calls/texts claiming to be from legitimate organizations like Canada Revenue Agency, credit card companies and border services, threatening the victim’s freedom etc.
• Emotional manipulation: romance scams, posing as fake charities asking for donations, etc.
• Pop-ups: computer/device’s getting a fake pop-up asking the user to claim a (fake) prize by clicking the link

The list goes on and is available through CAFC’s website.

In 2021 there was a record loss of over $380 million dollars, but that increased to over $530 million 2022. CAFC noted that was more than a 40 per cent increase from the year before.

However, the CAFC suspects that number is much higher as not everyone is reporting when they’re scammed.

Reporting fraud or scams can be done through CAFC’s website, here.