An Ontario woman is out $86,000 after receiving a call from a fraudster claiming to be a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) investigator. They told her that her bank accounts were involved in a money laundering operation.
One of the most important things to remember about scams is that there’s almost never an “act now” urgency with legitimate investigations/actions. Even in cases of crimes where people are arrested on the spot they have the right to talk to a lawyer before anything proceeds legally. The authorities are not contacting groups of citizens over the phone to tell them they’ll be arrested/lose everything in 24 hours if they don’t comply.
If someone is telling you that you need to do something IMMEDIATELY and you need reassurance, first off realize it’s almost certainly a load of crap. Tell them to send their requests to you in writing, hang up, and contact your bank and/or the institutions that are apparently investigating you (CRA, Police, etc.)
One of the most important things to remember about scams is that there’s almost never an “act now” urgency with legitimate investigations/actions. Even in cases of crimes where people are arrested on the spot they have the right to talk to a lawyer before anything proceeds legally. The authorities are not contacting groups of citizens over the phone to tell them they’ll be arrested/lose everything in 24 hours if they don’t comply.
If someone is telling you that you need to do something IMMEDIATELY and you need reassurance, first off realize it’s almost certainly a load of crap. Tell them to send their requests to you in writing, hang up, and contact your bank and/or the institutions that are apparently investigating you (CRA, Police, etc.)