For the second time in a couple months, a Burnaby resident has fallen prey to a tax scam involving iTunes gift cards.
A 22-year-old woman received a call from someone claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) telling her she owed money and that she would have to pay the debt in the form of iTunes gift cards or risk being thrown in jail and deported, according to Burnaby RCMP.
Police said she purchased thousands of dollars in iTunes gift cards, which were turned over to the suspects through SnapChat, with the victim losing all but $100 because the card numbers were redeemed.
Mounties said the scammers urged the victim to purchase another $1,000 in gift cards from a Shopper’s Drug Mart. However, those gift cards were not redeemed and will be refunded to the victim.
She reported the incident to police on June 29.
Police noted the woman was new to the country and was unfamiliar with how Canadian tax laws work.
“This was a very unfortunate incident for this young lady,” said Burnaby RCMP’s chief supt. Stephan Drolet in a statement. “We want to warn the public, and especially businesses, that if you see people purchasing large volumes of gift cards, to please take a moment and ask them about it. Ask them if this is a request allegedly coming from the Canada Revenue Agency and if it is, please advise them to call police.”
RCMP said it was the second time a similar scam was reported to police in the past week, adding this type of fraud is growing across the country.
In April, a North Burnaby woman was scammed out of $8,000 worth of iTunes gift cards in a similar fashion.
Someone called her claiming to be with the CRA, who told her she owed money and if she didn’t pay, she’d be cuffed and thrown in jail.
In this case, the victim ended up purchasing 16 cards worth $500 each.
