By David F. Rooney
Here’s a cautionary tale from the bowels of the Internet: A gang of crooks is sending out e-mails purporting to be from the Canada Revenue Agency and asking you to click on a link letting you accept a $500 tax refund.
Local artist Sandra Flood received one of the e-mail earlier this week and was immediately suspicious.
“So I get this e-mail,” she while sipping a latte at Sangha Bean Café on Thursday, July 9.
“Usually the Canada Revenue Agency just deposits my refunds directly into my account and they do it without notifying me about it so what was this all about?”
The whole this seemed a little hinky so Sandra tried to reply to the e-mail and received a message from a Mail Daemon telling here that thee was no such e-mail account.
That, of course, immediately confirmed her suspicions and she called the RCMP detachment where someone told her the detachment doesn’t investigate that kind of attempted fraud.
“I am a little worried that this may be making the rounds here and someone might actually fall for it,” she said.
Here’s a word to the wise:
- The CRA does not use commercial e-mail transfers; it deposits cash directly into your account provided you are due a refund; and
- It also does not use e-mail to initiate contact with citizens. If it needs to contact you it will do so via Canada Post — not Hotmail.
Please click here or more information about this and other kinds of scam.
