Every March, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) joins organizations around the world to recognize Fraud Prevention Month. Keeping your information secure is a top priority for the CRA. Learning how to identify fraud, scams and tax schemes helps keep your personal information safe.

Scammers continue to pose as the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and other government departments and agencies, to trick you into giving them money or personal information. Unfortunately, they’re still having some success. The amount of money that people have lost to scams and fraud has increased over the years.

Scammers posing as the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) continue their attempts to trick you into handing over money or personal information. Know what to expect when the CRA contacts you so you can tell the difference between legitimate communications from the CRA, and scams.

How to make sure the caller is a CRA employee and not a scammer

A legitimate CRA employee will identify themself when they contact you, providing you with their name and phone number to call them back, if needed.

The holidays are approaching, but scammers aren’t taking any breaks from their attempts to trick you into handing over money or personal information. Scammers prey on the increased financial pressures that many of us face around the holidays, so it’s important to be aware of how and when the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will contact you to distinguish legitimate communications from the CRA, and scams.