A 75-year-old West Vancouver woman is the latest person on the North Shore to fall victim to “tax collector” scammers.
Luckily, in this case, police were able to intercept her payment before the fraudsters pocketed $5,000 of her money.
As in another recent case in North Vancouver, con artists contacted the woman claiming to be tax collectors with the Canada Revenue Agency and demanding an immediate payment for $5,000 in unpaid taxes.
The woman then mailed a cash payment to an address in Langley by registered mail, also complying with a request to place a false return name on the envelope, said West Vancouver police.
But snail mail worked in the woman’s favour. Before the cash was delivered, the victim’s son discovered the payment, realized it was a scam and contacted police.
Fortunately, the payment had been sent by registered mail and, working with Canada Post, officers managed to intercept the mailed cash payment before it was picked up.
Another senior - a 90-year-old Langley woman - was briefly detained when she showed up at a postal outlet attempting to collect the registered letter.
But investigators concluded the woman was likely an unwitting participant in the scam attempt.
The Langley woman told police she had received notification that she had won a cash prize and could collect it at the post office. Investigators believe the woman had been set up to receive a cash payment and would then likely have been targeted by the scam artists, had the envelope been collected.
Investigators believe both the West Vancouver and Langley seniors were contacted by the same suspect or suspects, who remain unidentified.
West Vancouver Police stressed that Canada Revenue Agency does not seek payment of unpaid taxes through untraceable money transfers, delivery of prepaid credit cards or mailed cash payments – often requested by scammers.
Taxpayers should be vigilant when they receive any kind of communication that claims to be from the Canada Revenue Agency unexpectedly claiming an unpaid tax debt or requesting personal information such as a social insurance number, credit card number, bank account number, or passport number, said police.
Scam artists can claim personal information is needed so the taxpayer can receive a refund or a benefit, or can use threatening or coercive language to scare people into paying fictitious debt to the CRA. Other tax season scams urge taxpayers to visit a fake CRA website where the taxpayer is then asked to verify their identity by entering personal information.
If you receive a call saying you owe money to the CRA, you should contact the Canada Revenue Agency directly, said police, adding if you believe you or any person you assist has been victimized by fraud, contact police.
