Beware of online tax scams, warns former CRA employee

An Ottawa man says taxpayers should be wary of the information they're willing to give up online during tax season. And that's not just because he worked for the Canada Revenue Agency for 30 years – but because he's been scammed.

Last week, Robert Day opened his inbox and found an official looking email that appeared to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, he told CBC News.

When Day clicked on the link inside the email, he said it took him to an official looking website – one that asked for some personal information.

"I don't know whether I had a short circuit between the earlobes or something," said Day. "But, I went into this darn site and it had you type in your social insurance number to get into the site."

Day said the site also asked for his credit card number and date of birth.

When the site indicated that he was entitled to $241, that's when Day became suspicious.

He called his wife to the computer to see what he'd done and then they called PhoneBusters, the Ontario Provincial Police's anti-fraud call centre.

According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), there are a few ways to identify an online tax scam.

"We would never ask for your social insurance number in an insecure way like that through the email system," said Peter Dellis, who works at CRA.

According to Dellis, CRA doesn't even have people's email addresses.

Day said he should have known better and he's embarrassed he got caught in a scam.

"When the Lord was handing out brains I thought he said trains and I missed mine," said Day.