There’s a new scam doing the rounds, and Canadians need to be careful not to fall for it.
On Tuesday, February 21st, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) warned of a “new variation of extortion.”
🚨ALERT!🚨 There’s a new variation of extortion. Fraudsters are sending emails with a letter (see image below); if you call the phone number in the letter, fraudsters will ask for your SIN and threaten that if you don’t send funds immediately, you’ll be arrested. This is a scam! pic.twitter.com/CzqUrLu5sM
— Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (@canantifraud) February 21, 2023
In a Tweet, the CAFC shared a fraudulent letter that is crafted to look like an official Service Canada letter. It reads “We are sorry to inform you about your Social Insurance Number (SIN) will be terminated with in 24hours. We take zero0tolerance approach to any violation of our Terms and Conditions which you have violated by using a fake identity.”
“We hope that you will understand our decision and we wish you the best in your future endeavours. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact customer service to our toll-free number [XXX-XXX-XXXX]”
According to the the CAFC, if you call the phone number mentioned in the fraudulent letter, scammers would ask you for your SIN information and “threaten that if you don’t send funds immediately, you’ll be arrested.”
Scams and frauds have been all too common in Canada in the last few years. In October 2022, the CRTC staff got a scam email from fraudsters posing as Ian Scott, while a recent Netflix refund scam targeted an individual, with the scammer telling the victim that they were eligible for a refund and asked for their banking information.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Source: @canantifraud
