By Ian Holmes

‘People are frantic:’ threats of violence increase as tax scam evolves

Jun 8, 2018 | 1:03 PM

NANAIMO — RCMP say the Canada Revenue Agency scam is growing and the level of threats escalating in Nanaimo, now including vows to blow up homes if payments aren’t made.

Nanaimo RCMP Cst. Gary O’Brien said the scam began targeting people locally five years ago with phone calls, but has evolved to include threatening messages via text and Facebook.

“Now there’s a threatening component to it where they’re saying they’re either going to blow your house up or harm your family,” O’Brien said. “Some people are frantic when they hear this message and they’ll do anything to stop this from happening.”

He said about a dozen people in Nanaimo lost in the range of $2,00 to $5,000 each over the last year to the CRA scam after they followed demands to buy gift cards to settle up non-existent tax debts.

“That is drastically under-reported because people are embarrassed or feel there is nothing we can do.”

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It’s not just seniors getting duped — O’Brien told NanaimoNewsNOW people from their early 20s to seniors in their 80s have been victimized locally.

The scammers are also proving to be increasingly aggressive.

O’brien said in one recent incident a terrified man came to their detachment with a caller on the line who stated the CRA was en-route to his home to harm his family.

O’Brien said an RCMP officer then took the phone heard from the defiant scammer

“He said ‘Listen, I will harm you and I will blow your house up to if you don’t put him back on the line,’”.

O’Brien said their detachment takes 50 calls a day between March and June about the CRA scam, the bulk of those threats originating out of Asia. He said that makes the crimes very difficult to solve.

He stressed the CRA will only contact people by mail and will never make threats or ask for personal information.

Ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes