With the growth of technology has come an increase with ways in which scammers can reach victims. Within the past few weeks we have been made aware of an email that has been going around claiming that they are the Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”). If you have received an email that is similar to the below, DO NOT fill out the application! Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and report the scam.

“Dear (name changed),

After a January 2015 review of our records, we have investigated your fiscal activity and tax returns over the last seven years. Our calculations show that you have made over payments of $687.00 CAD. Due to the high volume of refunds to be processed, the telephone help line is unable to assist with this application.

In order to process your refund, you will need to complete the application form made available on the CRA site for this purpose.

To access the application form, please go to CRA – Application Form – Get Started. Your refund may take up to 3 weeks to process. Please make sure you complete the form fully and correctly.

As we are upgrading our records we require the completed form showing your full current details by 01 April 2015.

Thank you,
Canada Revenue Agency”

We cannot stress it enough that the CRA will not request any personal information of any kind from a taxpayer by email and will NEVER insist that the telephone helpline is too busy to assist you with your matter.

If you have further questions about tax scams give us a call, we would be happy to help!