Scam alerts

What’s happening: Phone scam - Impersonating the CRTC: Canadians are receiving phone calls with a spoofed caller ID for the CRTC consumer support line 1-877-249-2782. Our Client Services team will only contact you if you have been in touch with them first. In most cases, they will provide a reference number. If you receive a call from this number but have not made an inquiry or the caller cannot provide your reference number, this is a scam.

Caller ID spoofing is when someone fraudulently alters their caller ID to appear as someone else on the receiver's phone.

What you can do: We encourage anyone who receives any suspicious phone calls claiming to be from the CRTC to report it through our National Do Not Call List. Do not give out your personal or financial information to anyone claiming to be from the CRTC. We will never ask for this information.

Many bad actors are posing as Government of Canada representatives to obtain Canadians’ personal banking information. Scammers may insist that this personal information is needed to receive a refund or benefit payment.

You should never respond to these fraudulent communications or click on any of the links provided. Protect yourself by knowing that the Government of Canada will never:

• contact you via text message to obtain personal information
• request prepaid credit cards
• ask for information about your passport, health card or driver's licence in unsolicited emails, texts or phone calls
• share your taxpayer information, unless you have provided the appropriate authorization
• threaten or try to intimidate you

A QR code or a “quick response” code, is a type of barcode that stores information, most commonly hyperlinks, to allow for quick navigation to web pages.

Be aware that we are seeing an increase in QR code scams that use misleading links.

What's happening: We are seeing an increase in scams that rely on QR codes. Canadians click the link and are directed to provide payment or personal information to illegitimate sources.

What you can do: If you do not know the source, don’t open the QR code link or give away your personal or financial information.

Be aware that these emails and calls are fraudulent and could result in identity and financial theft.

What's happening: Some individuals are sending emails and calling Canadians claiming to represent the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and that they owe a fictitious debt to the agency. An immediate payment is demanded, either by credit card or by convincing the victim to purchase a prepaid credit card and contacting them with the information. The language used in the emails and calls often threaten the victim with court charges, jail time and/or deportation.

What you can do: To help you identify possible scams, please note that the CRA:

• never requests prepaid credit cards;
• never asks for information about your passport, health card, or driver's licence;
• never shares your taxpayer information with another person, unless you have provided the appropriate authorization; and
• never leaves personal information on your answering machine or asks you to leave a message containing your personal information on an answering machine.

If you have received a call and are not sure about the caller's true identity, you should not provide any personal information, including your telephone number. Given the fraudulent nature of the call, you should hang up and contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) at 1-888-495-8501, a national service jointly operated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau.

If you want to confirm the authenticity of the call, you can contact the CRA at 1-800-959-5525 for business-related accounts or 1-800-959-8281 for individual accounts.

Consult CRA scam alerts for more information about scams and fraudulent communications impersonating the CRA.

For any other unwanted calls, we encourage Canadians to file a complaint with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) or call 1-866-580-DNCL (3625). You can help us investigate unwanted calls by providing as much information as possible, such as:

• The telephone number at which you received the call;
• The purpose of the call;
• The telephone number and name of the telemarketer that appeared on the call display or that the person gave you over the phone;
• The exact time and date of the call as it appeared on the call display;
• The callback number that may have been provided to you by the caller;
• Whether the complaint relates to a fax, residential or business number; and
• Any other information that you have about the call.

If you are not on the National Do Not Call List and want to reduce the amount of unwanted telemarketing calls you receive, we also encourage you to register your number.

If you have received an unsolicited commercial electronic message, you can report it to the Spam Reporting Centre. Canada's Anti-spam Legislation (CASL) helps protect Canadians while ensuring that businesses can continue to compete in the global marketplace.

Be aware that these calls are misleading. The callers in question have not been authorized by these companies to make these calls on their behalf.

What's happening: A recorded message will inform you that your telephone number was selected by one of the companies listed above. You are then asked to "press 1" in order to speak with a representative who will offer you a vacation. The callers also display a false callback number (a practice known as caller identification spoofing).

What you can do: We encourage you to file a complaint with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) or call 1-866-580-DNCL (3625). You can help us investigate these calls by providing as much information as possible, such as:

• The telephone number at which you received the call;
• The purpose of the call;
• The telephone number and name of the telemarketer that appeared on the call display or that the person gave you over the phone;
• The exact time and date of the call as it appeared on the call display;
• The callback number that may have been provided to you by the caller;
• Whether the complaint relates to a fax, residential or business number; and
• Any other information that you have about the call.

If you are not on the National Do Not Call List and want to reduce the amount of unwanted telemarketing calls you receive, we also encourage you to register your number.

If you received a call and are not sure of the caller's true identity, you should not provide any personal information, including your telephone number. Finally, if you receive a call that you think may be fraudulent, contact your local police or the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501), a national service jointly operated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau.

What’s happening: Google listing scams are a telemarketing scam from either a live agent or a robocall with a pre-recorded message, falsely identifying themselves as a Google representative, and informing Canadians that their Google business listing is about to expire, has incorrect / outdated information, or is poorly ranked in Google rankings. The caller (either an agent or the pre-recorded message) then requests money in order to resolve the issue. Google business listings are free and do not expire. Although Google does occasionally initiate calls to businesses, it does not make unsolicited sales calls from an automated system.

For more information visit: Protecting against fraudulent calls

What you can do: We encourage you to file a complaint with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) or call 1-866-580-DNCL (3625). You can help us investigate these calls by providing as much information as possible, such as:

• The telephone number at which you received the call;
• The purpose of the call;
• The telephone number and name of the telemarketer that appeared on the call display or that the person gave you over the phone;
• The exact time and date of the call as it appeared on the call display;
• The callback number that may have been provided to you by the caller;
• Whether the complaint relates to a fax, residential or business number; and
• Any other information that you have about the call.

If you are not on the National Do Not Call List and want to reduce the amount of unwanted telemarketing calls you receive, we also encourage you to register your number.

If you received a call and are not sure of the caller's true identity, you should not provide any personal information, including your telephone number. Finally, if you receive a call that you think may be fraudulent, contact your local police or the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501), a national service jointly operated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau.

What’s happening: The Psychic Consultation scam begins with a live call offering a free psychic consultation, which then requires you to call-back a 1-900 telephone number to receive the free offering. Upon calling the 1-900 number, Canadian consumers are the charged on their telephone bills in accordance with standard 1-900 telephone number billing practices. The callers also display a false callback number (a practice known as caller identification spoofing).

What you can do: We encourage you to file a complaint with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) or call 1-866-580-DNCL (3625). You can help us investigate these calls by providing as much information as possible, such as:

• The telephone number at which you received the call;
• The purpose of the call;
• The telephone number and name of the telemarketer that appeared on the call display or that the person gave you over the phone;
• The exact time and date of the call as it appeared on the call display;
• The callback number that may have been provided to you by the caller;
• Whether the complaint relates to a fax, residential or business number; and
• Any other information that you have about the call.

If you are not on the National Do Not Call List and want to reduce the amount of unwanted telemarketing calls you receive, we also encourage you to register your number.

If you received a call and are not sure of the caller's true identity, you should not provide any personal information, including your telephone number. Finally, if you receive a call that you think may be fraudulent, contact your local police or the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501), a national service jointly operated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau.

What’s happening: There is a text message scam campaign referring to Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation and a judgment awarding money to victims of illegal spamming on behalf of the CRTC.

This is a scam. Do not click on the link.

If you receive this text message, you can report it to the Spam Reporting Centre, then delete the message.

What you can do: You can help us investigate these spam texts by providing as much information as possible, such as:

• The telephone number at which you received the SMS;
• The telephone number and name of the sender that appeared on the text notification;
• The exact time and date of the message;
• Any other information that you have about the spam message.

If you received a text and are not sure of the sender's true identity, you should not provide them with any personal information. Finally, if you receive a spam message that you think may be fraudulent, submit information about the message to the Spam Reporting Centre using their web form.