CRA Phone Scam: How to Tell a Real CRA Call
A real CRA call is calm, gives you an employee's name, office and callback number, and lets you hang up and check. A scam call threatens arrest or deportation and demands fast payment by gift cards, cryptocurrency, prepaid cards or Interac e-Transfer. The CRA never does that. Hang up and call 1-800-959-8281 to verify.
The CRA scam call pattern
CRA scam calls follow a script. Knowing it is the fastest way to recognize one.
- A recorded message or a caller says you owe tax, a payment failed or your SIN was used in a crime.
- The caller says there is a warrant, the RCMP or police are on the way, or you will be deported.
- You are told to pay right now to “settle” it, often by buying gift cards and reading out the numbers, sending cryptocurrency through a Bitcoin machine, loading a prepaid card or sending an Interac e-Transfer.
- You are told to stay on the line, not to tell anyone and not to hang up. Sometimes a second caller pretends to be the RCMP to confirm the story.
Every one of those steps is something the real CRA says it does not do. Police services across Canada have warned about the same pattern for years, including follow-up calls from fake RCMP officers.
Does the CRA ever call people?
Yes. The CRA may call to ask for missing information, discuss an amount you owe or tell you about an upcoming review. The employee gives their name, office location and a callback number. You can hang up, verify that callback number on the CRA’s website, and call back on your own terms.
What the CRA never does
The CRA’s published scam guidance lists what it will never do. It will not:
- Demand or pressure immediate payment by Interac e-Transfer, cryptocurrency, prepaid credit cards or gift cards.
- Provide or accept payments by cryptocurrency.
- Send refunds or payments by e-transfer or text message.
- Threaten to deport you, arrest you or put you in prison.
- Use aggressive or threatening language.
- Set up an in-person meeting in a public place to collect a payment.
- Ask for personal or financial information in a voicemail or email.
Would the CRA threaten to arrest me over a tax debt?
No. The CRA states that it never threatens to arrest you, deport you or put you in prison, and never uses aggressive or threatening language. If a caller mentions a warrant, the RCMP or immigration status in a call about taxes, you are talking to a scammer. Hang up without arguing.
The real CRA numbers
These are the main CRA lines from canada.ca. The first two serve all of Canada except Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, which have their own numbers on the CRA contact page.
| Purpose | Number |
|---|---|
| Individual tax enquiries | 1-800-959-8281 |
| Business enquiries | 1-800-959-5525 |
| Report suspicious activity on your personal CRA account | 1-833-995-2336 |
When a CRA employee gives you a callback number, the CRA says to end the call first and then check it against its own list, not to verify it during the call and not to trust what caller ID shows.
If the call came from an ordinary number, you can also look it up on TrustOrNah’s phone lookup. A “CRA” call from a prefix held by a mobile carrier or labelled as a likely VoIP line does not match how the agency works, and other people’s reports may already describe the same script. A lookup cannot prove a call is real, though, because scammers can fake official numbers too.
What to do if you paid
Act quickly. Money sent by gift card, cryptocurrency or e-transfer is hard to recover, and scammers often call back for more.
- Stop paying. Do not answer further calls from the same people, even if they promise a refund.
- Call your bank or card issuer on the number on your card. For gift cards, contact the company that issued the card with the card numbers and receipts.
- Tell the CRA if you gave out your SIN or CRA account details. The CRA lists 1-833-995-2336 for problems with a personal account and says protections can be placed on the account during the call.
- Report it to your local police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501. The CRA also suggests contacting the credit bureaus Equifax and TransUnion if your identity may be at risk.
Keep every receipt, card number, phone number and screenshot. Police and the Anti-Fraud Centre will ask for them.
What to do now
- Hang up on any “CRA” call that threatens arrest or demands payment by gift card, crypto or e-transfer.
- Verify any real-sounding call by calling 1-800-959-8281 (individuals) or 1-800-959-5525 (businesses) yourself.
- Check your messages by signing in to your CRA account directly, not through a link.
- If you paid, call your bank, then report to the police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.