Taxman phone scam heating up this summer

VERNON – Scammers are calling into the southern Interior again pretending to be with the Canada Revenue Agency and separating people from their hard-earned money.

RCMP are warning people not to give any personal or banking information over the phone after reports of people being targetted in the North Okanagan recently.

“In this scam, a person will receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from Revenue Canada, saying that taxes are owed,” Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy says in a media release. “The victim is pressured to pay the allegedly owed taxes immediately over the phone.”

If the victim doesn’t take the bait, the scammer threatens to send the RCMP to arrest them.

“In at least one instance, another scammer has phoned claiming to be an RCMP officer on the way to the victim's residence to put them in jail,” Noseworthy says in the release.

The scam is so widespread, the Canada Revenue Agency has posted information on its website.

And it's not new to the southern Interior. It's been reported in Kamloops and throughout the Okanagan and is one of many scams criminals use to defraud the public.

If you have been scammed contact the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.