Fraud

Yesterday someone called my home number claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency. I called the number back today and got this person with an American accent. She asked for my social insurance number off the bat, which I didn't give her. She asked instead for my last name and put me on hold while she got my file. Once she "had my file" I challenged her to validate she was from Canada Revenue by telling me my social insurance number. She rattled off an entirely incorrect number. She agressively claimed I owed a little over $2000 on my 2003 personal taxes. Hardly. The 2003 tax year was in fact one of only two in my life where I had only one job and no self-employment income. I got a refund that went directly into my student loan. Conversely, I've owed the Canada Revenue money before when I was self-employed as a sole proprietor and know what their collections are really like. They are very accommodating in verifying who they are and you never call a collection agent directly, not to mention letters are sent in advance. She couldn't even tell me my own home phone number that she called me on yesterday. She became contentious and said why would she care what I owed if she wasn't at work and that if I didn't give her my correct social insurance number how could she "clear my file". I refused again and she gave up on me and hung up.

Pretty clearly she was fishing for my social insurance number for the sake of identity theft and presumably if I had been dumb enough to agree to pay what I "owed" a valid credit card and expiry.

Never give you social insurance number to anyone over the phone

BTW, I've been on hold with the RCMP fraud line while writing this.