Police have not heard of any Merrittonians falling for it. Anyone who gets a call from someone claiming to be with the CRA should confirm caller’s authenticity

Another phone scam has been making the rounds in Merritt.

Merritt RCMP have been inundated with reports of people receiving a call from someone claiming to be with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

The way the scam works can vary, but essentially the caller informs the victim they owe back taxes or other fees and threatens to have the person arrested if a payment isn’t made.

To avoid the repercussions, the person is told they must must transfer the owed funds into a specific account.

RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore said that so far RCMP have not heard of anyone in Merritt who has fallen victim to this scam, but for the past month have received daily reports from people who have been confronted by it.

The CRA will not call and ask people to do something like this and people who receive this call should simply hang up on the scammer and report the call to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

“You’re not going to just transfer money into some random account,” Dunsmore said of dealing with the CRA.

“That’s not how Revenue Canada works.”

On its website, the Canada Revenue Agency noted an increase in phone scams of this nature, dating back to June. It warns these calls are fraudulent and could result in identity and financial theft.

There have been recent telephone scams involving a caller threatening taxpayers or using aggressive and forceful language to scare them into paying fictitious debt to the CRA, the government organization states on its website.

“Victims receive a phone call from a person claiming to work for the CRA and saying that taxes are owed. The caller requests immediate payment by credit card or convinces the victims to purchase a prepaid credit card and to call back immediately with the information. The taxpayer is often threatened with court charges, jail or deportation,” the website states.

To confirm the authenticity of a CRA phone number, call the CRA using 1-800-959-5525 for business-related calls or 1-800-959-8281 for individual concerns.

“These phone scams have been going around for years and they just come up with a new angle every time,” Dunsmore said.