Vancouver Man Falls for CRA Scam, Loses $2,000 in Apple iTunes Gift Cards

Kelly Loden, a resident of Vancouver, has lost a total of $2,000 after scammers posed as the CRA and police officials. Loden was not proud that he fell for this scam, however, he wants others to pay attention to his story so they don’t make the same mistake. In a statement to CBC News, Loden said:

“I feel so stupid. Just getting over my own stupidity is a hard thing.”

The type of fraud that was used to trick Loden, along with numerous other Canadians, has become increasingly complex for police to deal with. Over the past few days, a Surrey resident lost $18,000 and a Vancouver women lost $6,000 to scammers. In both of these cases, the fraudsters told the victims that there was a warrant out for their arrest.

In most of these cases, the scammers will even spoof the phone number of the CRA or other government agency. In a statement, Loden said:

“My self-guilt of just owing tax money to CRA let me be led astray and scammed. I’d already been ignoring it for two years They had financial information against me that made me believe them. They knew what years I’d filed taxes personally, versus with an accountant.”

Shortly after the call from the CRA, Loden received a call from someone claiming to be an officer from the Vancouver Police Department, who told him that their was a warrant out for his arrest.

The scammers then asked Loden to fill out a CRA form, that he would not be able to find. When he couldn’t find the form, the scammers said that they would accept payment in the form of Apple iTunes gift cards.

Shortly after, he called the real Vancouver Police Department and put an end to the scam. The fraudster’s entire scam was based on fear, scaring the person to give them money.

“The CRA does not issue arrest warrants. These people would have no power if Canadians knew that they just don’t do that.”

For every Canadian reading this, the CRA will never ask you to send money over the phone and the CRA does not issue arrest warrants. If you are on a call with the CRA and they ask you to send a payment via a gift card of any sort you can be sure this is a scam. When you run into these incidents, please report them to the CRA’s official fraud unit and the appropriate authorities.

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