It’s Tax Time Again – Revenue Canada PHISHING e-mail time

Since returning from my trip to the Grand Canyon with the three kayakers, I have spent a bit of my time reviewing which photos I will be adding to our MegaPixelTravel website. Much of my time, though, I have spent catching up on world news and getting the various information ready to submit the required information for tax payments and tax refunds for various family members (as well as breaking strings in my badminton racquet – a non-deductible expense – :-)).

Being as it is tax time, it should come as no surprise that there are thieves out there, somewhere in cyberspace, just waiting to use tax time as an opportune time to try to scam the unwary public.

Each year, Revenue Canada warns the public to be alert and not provide information such as SIN numbers to any on-line requests for such information. This is especially true if the e-mail requests appear to be from Revenue Canada. The e-mail address of the sender may appear to be legitimate, but it isn’t. All the phisher wants the recipient to do is to click on the link to their server (not a Revenue Canada link) and provide valuable personal information which the scammer/phisher can then use to access other accounts in their on-going and sophisticated business of “identity theft”.

I haven’t received such a tax-time phishing attack in past years but this year, guess what, it’s my turn! Today, I received the following e-mail:

Dear Taxpayer,

After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of : $312.00
Regarding this, please complete the Refund Form and mail it to one of the addresses from the second page.
Your *Refund Reference Number is: Ref/12209/2013.
*Refund Amount : 312.00 $.

To access the form for your tax refund, please Click Here.NOTE!

For security reasons, remove the form from your computer after printing.

Thank you,
Canada Revenue Agency

It’s not the first time that I have been the target of such phishing scams and it probably won’t be the last but as I have recommended in previous postings on the matter of phishing and internet fraud, Canada has a government agency tasked with investigating such fraudulent behaviour (The Canadian Ant-Fraud Centre) so I immediately sent off a copy of the e-mail to their antifraud line e-mail address:  info@antifraudcentre.ca.

Seconds later, back came the automated response in both official languages. Now that I feel that I have contributed my little bit to the antifraudcentre database, I can get back to T4’s, T5’s and all  of those other nice forms that tell me that I still have to pay Revenue Canada a bit more!

Auto response from antifraudcentre

This is an auto-response, please do not reply. 

Thank you for contacting The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC).  Your e-mail has been received. Due to the high volume of e-mails, you will not receive a reply. 

If you are a victim of identity fraud, have lost money, not received goods or services, are in the process of sending money or have a question or concern, please contact our toll free number 1-888-495-8501 and speak to a representative. Due to high call volume, you may experience an excessive wait time.

Please be aware that the CAFC is a central repository for fraud data.  Our Criminal Intelligence Analysis Unit provides support to law enforcement agencies by analyzing fraud data submitted to the CAFC. We strongly recommend that consumers also report all fraud related matters to their local police agency.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre advises consumers not to open unsolicited emails or when the sender is unknown. Spam usually means scam. Just delete them! 

For more information, please do not hesitate to visit our website: www.antifraudcentre.ca 

Ceci est un message automatisé; veuillez ne pas répondre à cette adresse.

Merci d’avoir communiqué avec le Centre antifraude du Canada (CAFC). Votre courriel a été reçu. Étant donné la grande quantité de messages qui nous est envoyée, vous ne recevrez aucun suivi.
Si vous êtes victime d’un vol d’identité, si vous avez perdu de l’argent ou si vous n’avez pas reçu la marchandise ou les services promis, que vous êtes dans le processus d’envoyer de l’argent ou que vous avez des questions ou des inquiétudes, veuillez composer notre numéro sans frais, 1-888-495-8501, et en discuter avec un représentant. En raison d’un nombre spécialement élevé d’appels, l’attente peut s’avérer être excessive. 
Le Centre antifraude du Canada est l'organisme central du Canada chargé de recueillir l’information et les renseignements criminels sur les plaintes en matière de fraude de marketing en masse (télémarketing), les lettres frauduleuses (Afrique de l’Ouest), la fraude par internet et la fraude en matière de vol d'identité. 

Notre Unité d’Analyse de Renseignements Criminels fournit un soutien aux agences responsables de l’application de la loi en analysant les données sur les fraudes soumises au CAFC.  Nous recommandons fortement aux consommateurs de communiquer au préalable avec leur service de police locale afin de signaler une fraude.

Le Centre antifraude du Canada recommande aux consommateurs de ne pas ouvrir les courriels non sollicités; Le spam, pourriel ou polluriel veut généralement dire fraude. N’ouvrez pas un courriel dont l’expéditeur vous est inconnu. Il vous suffit de les effacer!
Pour de plus amples renseignements, vous pouvez consulter notre site web : www.centreantifraude.ca