Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

CRA scammer no match for senior

Oct 19, 2017 | 10:00 AM

An alert senior has foiled a would-be telephone scammer.

Darlene Poncelet lives in Tway, south of Prince Albert with her husband Jim. She received a few voice mails earlier this week from a caller claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency demanding $6,000 in taxes owed by her husband.

Poncelet called back and the lady on the line seemed pretty convincing.

“She said they’d sent the RCMP to our house, they’d left a yellow tag on our door, and sent three registered letters,” she said. “But we didn’t receive anything like that.”

The scammer was persistent and connected Poncelet to ‘an agent.’ This next scammer knew their address, gave a case number and his badge number and other phone numbers where she could call him back.

He told Poncelet that she needed to send him at least a thousand dollars in cash immediately by transfer otherwise her husband’s wages would be garnished, they’d freeze their bank accounts, and take the house and cars. Her husband was even threatened with arrest.

Poncelet was concerned, but felt “something just didn’t sit right.” She told the man that her husband wasn’t around, and she didn’t have the time to deal with the matter straight away.

However, what got her really suspicious was when the man on the end of the line told her to keep everything hush-hush.

“He told me not to tell anyone about this,” Poncelet said and then he said ‘because I can tell by your voice you’re very trustworthy,’ and I thought ‘oh really!’”

She called the RCMP and reported the incident and they informed her she was being targetted in one of Canada’s most notorious scams. The so-called CRA scam is a major headache for law enforcement and they have issued many warnings through the media countrywide.

Poncelet is telling her story as a warning to others. Many unsuspecting people, many of them seniors, are caught out every year. The bottom line is the Canada Revenue Agency does not ask for taxes, fees or penalties on the phone and does not make threats.

Poncelet thinks this particular scam artist figured he’d be able to con her as she’s a senior. She’s waiting for the next call, because she plans on giving him a taste of his own medicine.

“I’m going to tell him after all the stress [he’s caused] my husband has passed away and he’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”

 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow