How to protect yourself from phone fraud and scammers

My recent column about impostors working at offshore call centres using heavy-handed threats to trick people into paying phoney tax bills drew an emotional response from readers. One emotion was fear. Many readers, even if they suspected a call was bogus, still worried about police coming to their home imminently to collect money they had cleverly avoided paying and now owed.

Another emotion was indignation. Those who tried to report the calls to law enforcement agencies were often told the police had no interest in the details.

Edward Chiang kept the scammers on his cellphone while he followed instructions to wire money using a gas station’s prepaid card (there were none left in stock), a Western Union outlet (which had long closed) and a branch of a big bank — where he was told that Canada Revenue Agency would never tell people to send money to a personal account.

His next stop was a local Toronto police station, where he reported the deceptive scheme that had almost taken him in.

“The police said they knew about it. I did not lose any money, so just ignore it. They can do nothing and they get those calls themselves, too. It seems scammers can commit crimes in Ontario with impunity.”

Another emotion was concern, about elderly people and newcomers to Canada who might believe the calls were real. They would like to see free public service ads on radio and TV to warn vulnerable people.

Some readers have received similar calls from bogus Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials, using threats that were just as frightening.

“The bogus calls from immigration said I had failed to complete Form 9 and could be deported if I did not provide bank account information,” said Elizabeth Wagle.

“When I refused, I was told that people from immigration would be at my door within 45 minutes to arrest me and I would be deported.”

She also received a series of fake CRA calls, which she thought were more sophisticated.

“When I asked the caller for ID, I was given an ID number. When I asked for a phone number, I was given a number that turned out to be the one for the Canadian AntiFraud Centre.

“When I said I thought the call was fraudulent and they should put their concerns in writing, they said they knew where I lived and what I looked like and would come to my address to assault me. I called the police.”

Another emotion was surprise. Some people were not familiar with caller ID spoofing, a technology allowing callers to use phone numbers with local area codes to disguise their location and identity.

“The phoney CRA calls often show the real CRA phone number on call display,” said Daniel Kayfetz. “My wife received two calls and used another phone to call the number shown and that made her believe it was real.”

I asked government officials about how to protect Canadians from telephone extortion threats. Here are their replies. Manon Bombardier, chief compliance and enforcement officer, CRTC: Protecting Canadians from calls they didn’t ask to receive is part of our mandate.

Caller ID spoofing is a big concern for us. Foreign callers can match the first six digits of your phone number to make you think it’s someone in your neighbourhood.

We have launched a public consultation, with a deadline of Dec. 4, to look at the technical solutions available to help people manage unsolicited calls, barriers they face to adopting them and innovative solutions used in other countries.

The comments are posted online. Paul-Noel Murphy, spokesman, Canada Revenue Agency: The CRA takes these tax fraud schemes very seriously. We recently redesigned our security web pages to include real-life examples of scam stories, including audio examples of scams that are updated as new types of scams emerge.

Our Twitter account, @canrevagency, tweets regularly to over 60,000 Canadians to warn of scams. Through regular media scanning, we monitor for tax scams and issue tax alerts to local media. We translate these alerts into 12 languages in communities with large multicultural populations. The CRA also works with the RCMP, provincial and local police forces to warn about scams. A tax alert on this subject was recently distributed to Ontario police forces. Theodora Jean, communications, Citizenship and Immigration Canada: CIC has received an increasing number of reports of a cross-Canada telephone scam. The department launched an investigation as soon as the first cases were reported. All suspected cases of fraud are turned over to relevant agencies or departments for investigation. CIC has also taken steps to inform the public. We first warned the public a year ago of fraudulent cases in which the callers identify themselves as a CIC officer and a second notice was issued last June. Tips on how to avoid fraud are at our website. Ellen’s advice Spread the word to your older friends and family members, especially those who don’t use computers. Canadian government officials do not call to collect money by phone, using prepaid cards, Western Union or private bank accounts. And if you have call display, do not answer any calls unless you recognize the number. Ellen Roseman writes about personal finance and consumer issues. You can reach her at eroseman@thestar.ca or ellenroseman.com