Drayton Valley RCMP warn public about telephone scams

Drayton Valley RCMP are warning the public about several different telephone scams that have recently been reported.

The first one involves receiving phone calls from someone impersonating Canada Revenue (CRA) Employees. These individuals will tell the taxpayers that they have a warrant for their arrest and in order to not get arrested, they have to pay money or get gift cards and provide them to the scammers. The CRA would never request someone to pay money over the phone, and would not accept gift cards as payment.

These scammers have been using spoofiing mechanism which will show that the call is coming from an RCMP Detachment in order to convince the victim that they are not scammers.

Another scam involves the scammer advising the person that their ITunes account has been hacked. They request ITunes cards as payment. They tell the victim that if they do not comply, then their account will continue to be hacked and that any of their personal information will be accessed.

Safety Tips:

No legitimate government agency or business will demand payment in gift cards or prepaid credit cards. These methods are used by criminals in order to hide their activities from police.

If you receive a call from someone claiming you owe money, get as much information from them as possible and tell them you will call them back. Find the government agencies’ phone number through a trusted source (phone book or official website) and call the department back. Don’t trust the phone number or email from the caller until you have verified that they are who they say the are.

Do not share any personal information with the caller, such as confirming the name, social insurance number, address etc.

The best protection from scammers is to learn how to resist being bullied into a decision regardless of how persuasive or aggressive the scammer may be. Arm yourself and the vulnerable people in your life by learning how to recognize and protect yourself from fraud at Canada’s AntiFraud Centre website www.antifraudcentre.ca and http://www.cra-arc. gc.ca/scrty/frdprvntn/ menueng.html

Please report any attempts of this kind to the Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 and the Drayton Valley RCMP

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) monitors all types of scams and warns Canadians to be on the lookout for scammers.