When the phone rang, she picked it up without looking at the call display.

The man on the line said his name was 鈥淩yan Smith鈥�, and he was with the 鈥渢ax service.鈥�

His English wasn鈥檛 the best, but he was able to get his point across.

鈥淭he taxation is going to take you to court for fraud,鈥� Smith said.

鈥淭he tax service has filed with the court because they think you鈥檝e done fraud.鈥�

That was when the woman, a resident of 91原创鈥檚 Otter area (who asked not to be named) looked at the call display.

鈥淚t was an odd number. It didn鈥檛 say Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).鈥�

She knew from reading news reports that this was a fairly common scam during tax season and the caller would probably try to convince her to pay up by using a money service business or pre-paid cards that could not be traced to the recipient.

鈥淏y then, I was angry鈥� she said.

When she told Smith off, he hung up.

When she called the number on the call display, another man, who claimed his name was 鈥淩ay Parker,鈥� picked up.

鈥淧arker鈥� also claimed to be a tax collector and said she owed more than $3,000.

If she didn鈥檛 pay promptly, the police would be sent to her home, he said.

But he wouldn鈥檛 say where he was calling from, couldn鈥檛 say who had prepared the tax return he claimed to have in front of him, and couldn鈥檛 even spell his name when she demanded.

After she challenged him, he hung up, too.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 fun playing with him any more. He was starting to stutter.鈥�

She said if she had been a naive senior citizen who didn鈥檛 know anything about the scam, she would have been a lot more upset than she was.

鈥淚 just had this vision of some poor little old darling, sitting there (on the phone) scared to death.鈥�

The next day, her next-door neighbour reported getting the same sort of threatening call left as a message on his voice mail.

He simply deleted it without bothering to call back.

91原创 RCMP Cpl. Holly Largy said lately, the local detachment has had several people report similar calls to them on the non-emergency number of 604-532-3200 and by coming to the front desk at the detachment.

Largy said residents should remember that Revenue Canada doesn鈥檛 use police as collection agents and when there is an issue, prefers to begin by sending a letter.

鈥淩evenue Canada doesn鈥檛 reach out by phone first,鈥� Largy said.

鈥淭here is correspondence, usually.鈥�

Largy said the force has noticed an increase in text messages with a hypertext link that purports to be concerning a tax refund.

Clicking on the link takes the victim to a fake CRA site that will try to get enough personal information from them, including their Social Insurance Number (SIN), Date of Birth (DOB) and bank account information 鈥� enough to commit identify theft.

The same trick is used via email.

According to statistics from the (CAFC) over 2,000 Canadians have lost more than $6.2 million to fraudsters posing as government officials since January of 2014.

During that time, there have been reports of roughly 40,000 calls made to Canadian residences demanding they send cash to resolve outstanding tax and/or immigration related matters.

About 95 per cent are never reported, the CAFC estimates.

Warning Signs 鈥� How to Protect Yourself (Courtesy CRA)

The CRA will never ask for personal information through an email or text message or by clicking on a link.

It never requests payment by prepaid credit cards or iTunes gift cards, and it does not send emails containing details of a tax refund or Interac e-transfer payments.

The CRA advises Canadians to confirm the status of their tax accounts before taking any action that may be the result of pressure from suspicious calls or emails by contacting the CRA directly at 1-800-959-8281 .

Some scam artists will even try to get more money out of victims by promising, via email, to pay back most of the funds that were lost, so long as the victim agrees to make an administrative payment (usually about five per cent of the funds that were originally lost).

The following is an actual quote from an email sent to a victim:

鈥淲e are happy to help you with our services. As you have already paid a huge amount of money to various scammers. Based on your background verification and as per your discussion with our senior management personnel Mr. David Carter, we are pleased to pay you CAD 97000 dollars. This is to inform you that the above amount will be given to you in four equal installments on the payment of nominal documentation fees which is 4.9 per cent of CAD 97000$ which is equal to CAD 4753 dollar. This is a one time payment of the documentation charges which shall be collected at your door step by our representative. On receiving the said fees, we shall release your first installment cheque worth CAD 24250 dollars within 48 hours. If you have any queries you can reach us via email or you can call our management personnel whose details are as under. Mr David Carter鈥�.

If you or a family member has fallen victim to this fraud, you are advised to phone the local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST).

You can also contact them online at