Poll: Merger support rises
Wood pellet exports double
Nearly $500K for car crash
Minister defends right to bail
Vise grips as steering wheel
$36M for vaccine injury 
New US rules for airlines 
Historic Trump hearing 
Pig kidney transplant 
Big loss for Boeing 
Metro sales edged higher
Retail sales slip 
Warriors snakebitten in loss
Iginla off to Europe
Rockets ink prospect
Perry teams with Lu Kala
Megan denies harassment
Swift ‘one of the family’
​One Vernon resident is out $11,000 after falling victim to a fraudster on Jan. 18.
The local man received a phone call and email from what he thought was an alleged employee of the Canada Revenue Agency.
The caller told the victim he owed the CRA $11,000 in unpaid taxes and if he didn't pay up immediately he would end up behind bars.
They then asked the victim to make the payment that day using a Bitcoin terminal.
A transfer of $11,000 was made by the victim to a Bitcoin reference number supplied by the fraudster. The victim quickly realized he was scammed and contacted the police.
"Unfortunately this victim realized he was being scammed a little too late and police were not able to assist in the retrieval of his funds," said Const. Kelly Brett. "Tax season is upon us and there has been a significant increase in these types of scams."
"The scam artists will gain your confidence, leading you to believe that you will be penalized by police if the money is not paid immediately."
With tax season among us, the Vernon RCMP are asking the public to talk to their friends and family about scams.
"If each person shared this message with five friends or family via text or social media, then we could better educate the public of scams such as this," Brett said.
- The CRA will not contact people by phone or email and threaten or coerce you into paying a tax bill.
- The CRA does not accept Bitcoin or any form of gift card as payment.
- The CRA will not request personal information, of any kind, by email.
- The CRA will not divulge any of your information, of any kind, to another unless formal authorization is provided by you.
- The CRA will not leave any personal information on an answering machine.
If you want to confirm that a CRA representative has contacted you, call the CRA at 1-800-959-8281 for individual concerns or 1-800-959-5525 for business-related calls.
For more information on fraud prevention, please visit the B.C. RCMP website or Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website.
.gif)
