Despite police warnings about online and phone scams, reports about thieves attempting to trick people out of their money are becoming more common, as a Sudbury businessman recently found out.
Brian Nori, who owns a local company called Paint Social, recorded a recent attempt by someone attempting to run the CRA scam. While it has a few incarnations, in this case, the caller pretends to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, claims the person is in tax trouble and asks them to contact a lawyer.
Nori said the call – which he recorded – raised so many red flags, he quickly realized it wasn't legitimate. Unfortunately, Nori didn't record the whole conversation, but in the nearly two-minute recording, the caller's aggressive attempts to get Nori to comply are plain.
Equally plain is Nori's immediate skepticism and refusal to play along with the caller. It's a good lesson for how to respond to similar calls you might receive.
Take a listen.
"It was bizarre," Nori said. "When someone calls you like this, if they're any good, they can seem so legit."
In this case, the scammer spoke with a thick accent, seemed to have trouble understanding what Nori was saying, seemed to be reading from a script and was aggressive.
"The 1-800 number kind of threw me off — I don't normally answer 1-800s,” he said. “Then you get the accent, he sounded very scripted and then the intimidation factor. You could hear it in his voice."
The attempt to intimidate is a huge red flag, Nori said, because a real Government of Canada employee wouldn't be as invested in getting the money.
"If there is a problem, the person at the CRA office couldn't care less about what it is. I'm just a number in the book. So if they sound very anxious, it's probably because they just want your money."
Nori says he's been a computer tech for a long time, and even got in a bit of trouble as a teen for hacking. So he has insight into how much technology has made it easier to defraud people.
"I've seen a lot of scams on the Internet and when they bring it to the phone, the dynamics change," Nori said. "I've heard before that they have this whole process where they try to get you in the mindset that they have full control over the situation."
The genuine CRA website warns that another popular scam is telling people they have a refund or benefit payment coming to them, enticing them to give up personal information.
“Cases of fraudulent communication could also involve threatening or coercive language to scare individuals into paying fictitious debt to the CRA,” the agency says on it website. “Other communications urge taxpayers to visit a fake CRA website where the taxpayer is then asked to verify their identity by entering personal information. These are scams and taxpayers should never respond to these fraudulent communications or click on any of the links provided.”
Nori said it has become easy to fake web addresses that look authentic, but are off by a period or slash in the address. Phones and email addresses, too, can be changed to appear to be coming from a legitimate source.
"It's very easy to send a fake email out to someone,” he said. “I could send you an email from the Whitehouse, literally. From the President of the United States and it's so simple.
"These people have the ability now to call you on the phone, intimidate you and send you to a website that looks exactly like the Canadian Revenue Agency site ... So know the red flags è that could be the only thing that saves your ass."
Nori said his red flags include:
A call out of the blue If you're in trouble with the government, you will receive a letter informing you before anyone calls you about it.
A heavy foreign accent. While CRA representatives may have an accent, they will understand English easily.
Aggression. This is a big one. Intimidation plays a big role in a successful scam. Plus government employees have no need to be aggressive – unlike someone trying to steal your money.
Reading from a script. If you ask them questions they don't expect and they stumble and repeat what they have already said, be suspicious.
"If someone is calling you, make sure you know who you're talking to,” Nori says. “Once they start with the intimidation factor, sending you information, everything can look real – everything. Some people in the older community aren't really caught up with the technology.
“And even people who are, it's hard to discern what's real. It's so easy these days to get (sucked into) a scam. The technology is there."
