I’ve been retired now for about ten years. My activity as far as tax filings is now limited to friends and family. The other day one of my friends received a letter from what may have been Revenue Canada stating that in 2022 the agency had started a new program to assist taxpayers in correcting what may have been an error on their return. It outlined ways in which taxpayers could correct any errors. It also stated that this person would call my friend (client) in a couple of weeks to discuss.. As I said, I’ve been retired for a few years so I’m unfamiliar with Revenue Canada’s procedures so this may be legit but something stinks.
Here’s the thing, the letter didn’t have his SIN on it, nor did it have the first 3 digits with the last 6 xed out. Also, the letter itself wasn’t on their website. Usually there would be a reference number to upload information to them but none was on it. Very suspicious.
I called the number of the agent this morning and identified myself as the taxpayers representative. The only thing he asked me was my represent a client ID number. Didn’t ask for my clients SIN, no requests for info from his tax return. He proceeded to discuss the situation without verifying anything.
My question is, is this a scam? Has anyone else run into this?
I agree that doesn’t seem right, they ARE getting better at these scam attempts. Recently I was monitoring my (late) mothers email account and saw what appeared to be CRA notices re: amounts owing - they were convincing enough that I logged in to check her account through RAC (I’m sure the link provided in the emails would have taken me elsewhere)!
I have never come across this and the CRA is anal (and should be) about verifying identities. I wouldn’t think a “new” program would be any different especially as even if they had such a program I’d think it would be staffed by experienced CRA representatives for whom verifying identities would be automatic.
This sounds odd and most likely a scam.
I agree with the other comments that the CRA agent did not ask the usual questions and I have not had them ask for my client ID before.
S.
I think what the original poster said was that the CRA person asked for his “represent a client ID”. I have had that happen many times (and increasingly more recently) but normally the CRA agent will follow that up with questions about the client and their return. I agree, though, with the presumption that this is a sham/scam.
I’ve had about 5 of these client letters so far, and can confirm there is in fact a new program where instead of sending a review letter, they call you about the line claimed. Most of these have been about interest and management fees. All our clients tell CRA to talk to us, so every agent in the letter has called me directly at my office and verified my REP ID, and the client’s info, address, etc.
Once we get through the security, they ask me what makes up the line amount and then they send a follow up letter saying thanks for talking to us, have a nice day. If there had been amounts included that shouldn’t have been, a review letter would have followed with asking for proof of amounts.
I personally LOVE (and so did the agents) this approach as it saved us at least a year in review process for something we already knew was correctly claimed. CRA agent said they will be doing more like this since the review processing times have ballooned into insanity and this is way faster.
All that to say, the letter is legit and the agent you talked to messed up in not doing further security questions, but it happens.
I raise caution here. Just because the CRA program exists does not mean the letter is legit. Anyone could take a genuine letter and mimic it. Anyone who’s heard CRA take them through the steps having received the letter could mimic the process.
So calling a number only found on the unsolicited letter and trusting it to be legit based on the comments above, is very high risk in this day and age of scams and fraud.
That only one question was asked, and only to obtain your rep id? But nothing about the client? If it smells, it probably stinks.
I generally push back on the agent to confirm for me that they are legitimate before I hand over any information whatsoever.
For starters, ask for their agent ID. Representatives should be doing that as a matter of course, as well as clients themselves but they generally are unaware of the import of this information. If they don’t have an agent id, hesitate, stutter over it, doesn’t match usual cra patterns? I would tell them politely that you do not trust this process and require further evidence of legitimacy. Maybe they can send another letter through. Or ask for a general number to call back on, and verify that independently.
@AlbertaEFileT I am usually quite confident with your responses, but I would caution on this answer. If the agent did not ask the appropriate questions, I still think @3PeaksCPA-RS has the right answer for this one. If it is all done respectfully, no harm is done and the legitimate agent will respond in a similar way. The key in your answer is in the second paragraph “once we get through security”. From the original post, it does not seem as though this happened.
It would very likely be a scam. CRA only calls for collection or call backs. The bait was correcting errors on the return (ie $ from past returns).
From the sound of this, they are looking for RepIDs. He would have obtain info from the friend that there was a Rep and the name of the rep. It would be important to have two factor authentication.
What if there are RepIDs which does not need 2 factor authentication?
I know someone who every time he shows up, I get strange rings for all sorts of countries like country 39. And “one of” my phones have some phone connect to its wifi.
Info theft really is trying to get info from the person or entity. One small info is meaningless. But once you have collected 100 pieces, it does. You can now work on puttng together the puzzle.
I have seen scams where the front is totally legit. But that part of the scam is meant to be dumped.
Could be real. If the officer did not follow protocol, it is the officer who should be supervised. And if the officer did not patch up the mistake, CRA crediblity would at issue. Every touch point with the public influences the perception of an organization.
The only “Letter” (ie physical snail mail) correspondence of this style I’ve seen is the “Education Letter” which is generally non-taxpayer-specific other than by addressee. Hard to tell if this is one of those. Maybe OP could post a scan of same, with the naughty bits redacted.
CRA does NOT email notes or letters to clients or their reps. Any such can be ignored unless they’re on RAC.
It would be difficult, but not impossible, for a scammer to send a snail mail CRA-style letter to someone, with a fake “officer at CRA” to contact. Before entering into ANY conversation with someone at CRA on such an occasion, I agree that asking for their Agent ID and Office Location is paramount. I would then usually follow that up with a fake ID and see what the agent did….
Personally, unless it acrually ASKED for action, I’d ignore it.
As a diatrible: one of the things the big banks now like to do is to generate a PIN code, send it to your phone and have you regurgitate that to them so THEY know they are talking to the right person.
CRA could easily implement this on RAC…generate a code, have the REP go on an blurb the code back. Now we BOTH know we’re genuiine. It isn’t that hard.
