Immigrants targeted in phone scam

THREATS: Callers claiming to be from gov’t agencies harass, defraud victims

TORONTO — Fatima Ahmed felt “genuinely threatened” when a man called her family’s Mississauga, Ont., home Tuesday afternoon and claimed they could all be deported if they didn’t fill out his forms from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

He identified himself as Richard Brown and first asked for her mother, who was at work at an electronics company.

When he tried to hang up, Ahmed pressed him for more information.

“He said, well I’m from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and we’re calling about your parents registering because they’re not born citizens,” Ahmed said Thursday.

In retrospect, she said that should have been her first red flag since she was also born in Pakistan. But the 28-year-old wanted to know more. Her family members have been in Canada since 2000 and became citizens in 2003. She went to high school here, then university.

“You do understand how ridiculous that is? Been in this country for 15 years and now you’re asking us to re-register?” she recalls saying. “At that point he started saying, ‘Well I’m calling from CIC, this is the law,’ (sounding) very authoritarian.”

Ahmed said she asked him what law he was talking about.

Her mind turned to the new rules that took effect at the end of May, which would allow the government to revoke the citizenship of Canadians with dual citizenship who are convicted of espionage, treason or terrorism.

Ahmed asked “Richard Brown” what department within CIC he worked for, and who his supervisor was. He told her he was his own supervisor.

“That’s when he started with the threats: ‘You’re not born citizens and if somebody doesn’t fill out the forms then you can get deported,’ and stuff like that.”

The 28-year-old said she was initially shaken, and a bit confused.

It wasn’t until she punched the phone number into Google that she realized it was a scam, and one that’s using the confusion over Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, to target new Canadians.

The caller didn’t demand any cash from Ahmed, but such scams have pried money orders and prepaid credits cards from other unwitting and fearful Canucks.

Her experience was far from unique. Police from Guelph, Ont., to Abbotsford have cautioned residents against scam calls from both the Canada Revenue Agency (who claim you owe back taxes or fees of some kind) and CIC.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre of the RCMP has received hundreds of complaints about fake calls from both agencies, some of which even appear as government phone numbers on caller IDs.

And it’s hard to track when the numbers can disappear so quickly.

So far in 2015, the anti-fraud centre has received 381 complaints about fake callers from CIC who’ve obtained more than $106,000 from their victims, and 2,855 complaints about CRA pretenders who’ve stolen more than $250,000.

CIC offers tips to avoiding fraud and details how to report it on its website.