We have had a number of clients ask us about suspicious emails they’ve received that claims to be from Canada Revenue Agency. To help combat this problem, CRA has issued a series of warnings about email scams that are currently circulating.
The CRA has posted an article outlining what you should beware of when you receive a communciation from someone purporting to be CRA: Beware of fraudulent communications.
They have also provided samples of fraudulent communications that taxpayers have been receiving:
As they note in the article, the CRA does not do the following:
- The CRA will not request personal information of any kind from a taxpayer by email.
- The CRA will not divulge taxpayer information to another person unless formal authorization is provided by the taxpayer.
- The CRA will not leave any personal information on an answering machine.
The CRA urges that when in doubt, ask yourself the following:
- Am I expecting additional money from the CRA?
- Does this sound too good to be true?
- Is the requester asking for information I would not include with my tax return?
- Is the requester asking for information I know the CRA already has on file for me?
- How did the requester get my email address?
- Am I confident I know who is asking for the information?
Having a healthy dose of caution when receiving unexpected emails is a good policy.
Tags: cra
