Starting from scratch, CRA scam
Donation protected
Hi there, my name is Monica Friesen, and I wanted to share my CRA scam story, to spread awareness and also request help in rebuilding the funds that were defrauded me. I have car insurance due in June and I lost all my savings and am a few thousand dollars out. Any help is greatly appreciated!
The full story -
On Friday, March 16th, 2018, I received a phone call from 1 [phone redacted], at around 1:30 pm, which I missed. I phoned the number back around 2:00 pm. I was informed that I was speaking with Officer Kevin _____ from the CRA. He gave me his badge number and told me to write it down - SH12963. I thought maybe I was being audited and my heart sank, but it turned out to be way worse. Officer Kevin told me that the CRA had a case against me in their files stating that I'd been intentionally fraudulent in paying my income tax between 2011 and 2017. I did turn eighteen in 2010 and had to begin paying taxes at that time. They told me in legal, technical terms, that they were filing a court case against me on 4 major charges under an act that I do not remember the name of, #66331, and were suing me for $50,000 to $60,000 (which later became $60,000 to $80,000.) I tried to write down the charges as they were telling me, but it was too complex for me to follow, since I am not familiar with these terms. They told me I had defrauded the CRA of $5800+, but were planning to take it to court at this time to resolve the crime I had committed against the CRA. They told me my court case file number was CH199YT2, and that I could look it up online. I was too busy talking with them to be able to do that. A couple days later when I checked the number on the Canadian court website, I found nothing. They asked if I had a lawyer to speak for me and if so, could I give them the lawyer’s number. I did not have a lawyer. They informed me that in an hour or so, all my bank accounts would be frozen, my car and house would be seized and the police would be at my door in 45 minutes to arrest me. I would be imprisoned for 20 days, and it would be non-bailable. They told me the police had my arrest warrant.
Immediately I became extremely frightened and went into fight-or-flight mode, to try to handle this situation. I didn’t own a house, so I’d be fine, as long as they didn’t seize my father’s house, which I was living in. I didn’t know what was possible or how this might affect my family. I did have a car though. I had no way of paying for $60,000 in sued charges, nor the lawyer’s fees. I had never been to court and had no knowledge of how it worked. I was extremely frightened at the thought of being imprisoned in jail. And I wondered how this would affect my work, if I had to suddenly go to jail. I work with children as a nanny and often need a police check to do my work. Having a criminal record could be very bad for my career.
I told them I had no knowledge of this offense that I had supposedly committed and I asked if there was a way to resolve it outside of court. They told me that now the police would be there in 15 minutes to arrest me, but it might be possible to do an absolvement outside of court, and they would check into it. ‘Officer Kevin’ then referred me on to the next department, an ‘Officer’ named Jack Peterson, whom I talked to the remainder of the time. He told me his badge ID was 41-268-455, and he also told me to write it down. ‘Officer Jack’ soon told me that my voice was breaking up over the phone. He asked where I was. I told him I was in my house in my bedroom. He asked me to go elsewhere so he could hear me better. I went downstairs and outside. He told me that since it seemed I had no knowledge of the fraud committed, and it could in fact be the responsibility of my accountant, it would be possible to absolve my court order if I agreed to 3 conditions. One condition was that I was to tell no one of these proceedings. I didn’t like that condition, since I usually talk to my father about major financial decisions and I asked why. He told me that if my accountant found out, he would probably try to get out of his responsibility for his crime. He also told me that not every case gets a chance to be resolved outside of court, so I needed to respect this chance I was being given to prove myself innocent. They told me they were giving me a chance for absolvement outside the court because I had a previously clear criminal record and because I had told them I was unaware of the crime committed. If other people found out, they would want the same chance. I told him I understood and agreed. I don’t remember the other two conditions, but he emphasized that I was supposed to be entirely honest with him, and to keep this information to myself, or else the absolvement would not go through. He told me my arrest warrant was put on hold and I had 2 hours to resolve this issue. I had to stay on the telephone line with him the entire time or else, again, the absolvement would not go through. I was not to hang up or put him on hold or disrupt this call in any way. If I would, they would take it to mean that I was not interested in resolving this issue outside of court, and the charges would be filed, and I would be arrested.
I was outside without a jacket and I was cold, so I asked if I could get my things. He told me to go inside, get what I needed, a pen and paper, photo ID and driver’s license and my wallet, car phone charger and come back outside to my car to talk to him. They told me I would need to pay the entire amount - $5,800+ directly as an absolvement. They wanted to do it via email, over my phone, but my phone was not working properly so I was not able to do that. I told him I could do it on my laptop. He said that would not work, it had to be on my phone. I told him I could access my email if I was not on the call with him. He said that the courts would not recognize that as a valid reason to disrupt the phone call, if there was another option available. We could only end the phone call for a valid reason. He told me of another option – I would need to go to my bank and withdraw the funds directly. He asked me where I did my banking and what kind of bank accounts I had. I told him my bank and that I had a chequing, savings, and an investment savings account, which was not easily accessible. It would take me a few days to access it. I did not tell him any of my account numbers. He asked for my postal code and told me drive to my bank and he would direct me from there. So I drove in to St. Mary’s to my local branch.
He tested me and asked what I was going to tell the bank teller about the reason I was withdrawing the funds. I said I didn’t know, and asked what he thought would be a good thing to say. He said to tell the clerk that I had a family medical emergency. He told me I had to keep the phone in my pocket the entire time so that he could hear my conversation with the clerk, and so we could stay on the line. So I went in to my bank and withdrew everything from my savings and chequing accounts in the form of cash, over $1000. He had told me to ask to withdraw from my investment savings for a fee, maybe several hundred dollars, but I forgot to ask. I only had a bit over $1000, so I couldn’t pay the whole absolvement fee. He told me I needed to be completely honest with him and not try to defraud the CRA while trying to absolve my case.
‘Officer Jack’ asked if I was on Queen St. I told him I was on a side road off of it. He directed me to the nearby Mac’s to turn the cash into some taxable receipts, which I forget the name of, that I could bring to the CRA office so that my court files would be released. He said he didn’t know if Mac’s had the taxable receipt forms, but for now I should just get Steam gift cards instead. I was unfamiliar with these giftcards and didn’t know what they were for, and I was too busy to even check them. He directed me to get 10 of them for $100 each. He told me that sometimes the clerks will ask questions if I buy a large amount of expensive giftcards, and that I needed to figure out what I was going to say if I was asked questions. He told me to say that I was going out of town and that these cards were gifts for my nephews and nieces. He said that sometimes these cards are used for paying bills and rent, and if the clerk thinks I’m using it to pay bills, they will keep some of the money on the card and only part of it will be useful. He said I should again put the phone in my pocket and talk to him once inside the building and let him help to direct me to the giftcards. I did that. The till only let me buy about 3 of the cards before it crashed. The clerk did some phoning and told me it should be good to go in a few minutes. In the meantime I went back to my car to talk to ‘Officer Jack’ again. He told me to scratch the back of the card and read the codes to him. I thought he asked this so that they could keep track of what I was doing and have proof that I was following through with what they asked, so that they knew I was sincere about trying to rectify this issue outside of court, so I did it. He told me to go on to the MacDonald’s Independent store to get the rest of the cards, but first to check one more time to see if they could go through at the till yet. They couldn’t. When I got back to my car the second time, to talk to ‘Officer Jack’, he informed me that I had one hour left before the arrest warrant for me would go out. I still had to buy 7 more giftcards and take the cards down to the CRA office before the files of my court case could be released. He also wondered if I had a credit card. I said I did. He said that after I had bought the rest of the cards, I should go to another branch of my bank and withdraw $5000 or as much as I could from my credit card. I had to go to another branch of my bank so I wouldn’t raise suspicion.
I went to the Independent grocery store and bought 7 more cards. I was really worried – would I be able to do all I needed to in time to get my arrest warrant cancelled? What if the police showed up at my home and asked my family if I was home and told them they had an arrest warrant for me?
I went to Stratford and ‘Officer Jack’ directed me to the local branch of my bank. I couldn’t remember at first where it was, since I didn’t go there often, but then I remembered. I went inside, again he asked me to have my phone in my pocket, so he could hear what was said. I told the teller that I had a family emergency and that I’d already taken all the money out of my chequing and savings accounts but then I realized that I could take out money with my credit card. She said I could withdraw $5000 using my credit card. She was skeptical, but gave it to me in cash. She told me I would have high interest fees if I did that. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just asked her to do it anyway. She wondered if she should set up an appointment for me to talk to a clerk on Monday, but I said I would look into it myself.
From there, the ‘CRA officer’ directed me to Walmart to buy more cards. He told me that they would look into my crime and if they found out that it was my accountant’s responsibility, I would be refunded for all of these giftcards. He also said that my arrest warrant was now on hold, but until I brought the giftcards to the nearest CRA office, it would not be cancelled. He wondered if I was feeling stressed. He said I sounded stressed and offered I could take a break, even if I just wanted to sit in my car for a few minutes and set the phone down, that would be fine. I told him that yes, this was emotionally stressful for me and I needed a break to use the washroom and get water. He told me I could do that. So first I did that and then I got a bit of food and I got 10 of the $100 giftcards from Walmart. I did all of that with the phone on the line in my pocket. When I got back to my car, however, the officer told me that his colleague had informed him that the CRA offices would be closing soon and I would need to hurry to finish before the end of the day. They were open Saturday mornings, but they wouldn’t be able to work on the case then, only Monday, and I needed to provide the funds for absolvement before then. So I couldn’t rest.
He directed me on to EB Games. I could only get 3 $100 giftcards there. Again I had to scratch the back of the cards and give the codes to the officer. From there I was directed to Staples, 2 different Shopper’s Drug Marts, Sobey’s, another Mac’s, and Walmart 3 times, to buy more cards and send him the codes every time, staying on the phone with this officer the entire time, and regularly reporting back to him and receiving instruction from him. He directed me to stores when I didn’t know the location. I gave suggestions when I thought I could help the process. I even thanked the officer several times for helping me through this alternative to going to court and being imprisoned. Altogether I bought 88 Steam giftcards – 22 $50 cards and 66 $100 cards.
At the Staples, the cashier said she needed the manager to check on the money, since it was a large purchase. Instead, another employee was able to do that. When I got back to my car, the ‘officer’ asked me if I didn’t need the manager to check the purchase. I said no, another employee had been able to do it. That reinforced to me that he really was listening when I went in to the stores and my phone was in my pocket.
At one point he told me not to be too confident. And he reminded me that sometimes people think these cards will be used to pay bills or participate in a fraud and that the clerks may suspect this, but I should tell them it was for gifts and I knew what I was doing. He said I also needed to make sure I looked happy – if I looked sad or depressed, they might think something is wrong, and not sell me the cards. . I usually told the cashier that the cards were for gifts and they always believed me. The cashier at the first Shopper’s Drug Mart told me she wished that someday she would have the money to spend like these 10 $100 giftcards I was buying. I smiled, but sadly thought to myself that I wished that I did have that money!
At another Shopper’s Drug Mart, I didn’t have the cash to buy the last card. When I got to my car, the officer asked me if I could try to buy more with my credit card. He told me to tell the cashier that I hadn’t had enough cash before, but I’d just realized that I could use my credit card. The cashier believed me and I bought more cards.
The officer was very persuasive and professional. He never got angry. He thanked me for my patience. At one point he told me that the CRA values their customers and wouldn’t want me to be wrongly accused. He also told me several times that I needed to be very honest with him for the absolvement to work.
I was instructed to go to Walmart several times. The officer asked me if I could go back in but pay for my purchase at a different till, so I wouldn’t be suspected. I did that. I also did get a 10 minute break at that time, where I ate my food and cried and tried to gather courage.
At one point I even wondered if it was maybe a scam. But in the face of two evils, a scam vs a court case, being sued, having my assets taken, and going to jail, I figured that it was safer to just go with it. I thought that if it did turn out to be a scam, I’d take it to the police. If I took it to the police now, for all I knew, they would imprison me on the spot, if they already had an arrest warrant for me. I really didn’t have much time to think about it at all, I was so busy being sent from one store to the next and reading out all the cards’ 15 digit codes to the officer.
When I got to Sobey’s it was around 7:00pm and the officer told me I just had to get the last giftcards and then we were done for the day and I could go home. He would phone me the next day at 9am and instruct me where to go to take the giftcards that morning. He told me again that I must not tell anyone – this was imperative for the absolvement to work. He said he’d had many other people who’d talked about it and their absolvement case had not worked out. I told him that likely my family would be worried about me and I was very emotionally distressed by the whole event, I wondered if I could tell them that I had had a financial/legal emergency. He said I could tell them that I had a financial emergency – that I’d had to deal with some things with my accountant, but that I shouldn’t mention the legal part of it or tell them what was going on. I agreed to that. I was so relieved to be about done. I went and bought the last cards. But when I got back to my car, he told me that the first $2000 of the giftcards was void – the cards had been defective. He said I needed to have all the money for the absolvement to work, so I had to buy another $2000 worth of more cards, using my credit card. They would contact the Steam company and I would be refunded on Tuesday next week.
I was so disappointed to realize I still had more to do. At Walmart again, the ‘officer’ instructed me to buy 4 extra $100 giftcards to cover the affidavit for removing the court case. His team had informed him of the extra fee. Finally as I sat in the Walmart parking lot for the third time, reading out another set of 10 $100 giftcard codes to the officer, I ran out of minutes on my phone. I was very worried – although I’d warned him that my phone might run out of minutes, he had told me it shouldn’t since he was using a toll free number, and earlier he had told me that if I hung up the phone, the arrest warrant for me would go out. I went in to Walmart to try to buy more minutes for my phone. I wasn’t able to, since I have my phone plan with PetroCan there were no cards that worked. But I discovered that Walmart had wifi. I had a phoning app that worked on wifi. So I phoned the officer back using wifi and told him what happened. He answered as ‘CRA Headquarters’ and instructed me to write down this email address – [email redacted]. He told me to take photos of the rest of the codes on the giftcards and email them to him on that email. I did that.
Then he informed me that there was something else he had to tell me. He said that his superiors were suspicious that I was still trying to defraud them. I had told him that I had only $5000, but here I was coming up with more funds on my credit card to pay for the $2000 extra cards. He said his team had found out that I actually had a $10,000 credit card limit, and that I had lied to them about how much money I had available, even though I had not given him my credit card information. He had told his superiors that I wasn’t trying to defraud the CRA, but they had told him that I now needed to come up with an additional $3000 worth of giftcards to prove my sincerity in the matter. It was 10 pm at that time. He informed me that I needed to buy these cards before midnight that night, or else the police would be at my door at 9am the next morning to arrest me and the court case would proceed on Monday. He said I would have a criminal record and my social insurance number would be blacklisted. I didn’t know how this would negatively impact my life, and it really frightened me, so I told him that I was not guilty of more fraudulence and I did want to clear it all up before midnight. He said I didn’t need to stay on the phone with him continually – and I couldn’t either, because I didn’t have constant wifi and I had no minutes – but I needed to get 15 more $100 cards from Walmart, and 15 more $100 cards from Staples. He said I needed to hurry – I had to get this done in 15 to 25 minutes, and he would call me back at that time to check in. So I went to find 15 more $100 giftcards. The first 5 went through the till, but the last ones didn’t. The cashier had to call a couple of his co-workers over to help him. One lady asked me, “this isn’t for the government, is it?” She said she’d almost been caught by a scam like that. I usually put effort into being an honest person, but I’d been so used to having to lie to cashiers all day about why I was buying the giftcards, that I said no it wasn’t. I told them not to try to go though with the rest of the giftcards. I went away with the five I’d bought.
Finally I had a little space of time to think – I had been on the phone with this man since 2pm. I paced the aisles at Walmart, and wondered if I should risk being arrested and just phone my father and ask his advice. I finally realized, this doesn’t make sense! I found the cashier who’d asked me if it was for the government and I told her, yes, it was. I was so relieved to realize that the chance of me going to jail and having a court case against me and all these horrible things happen to me was no longer a possibility. She encouraged me to call the police. I did that and they asked me to go in to the Stratford police office. I did that and told them what had happened. They told me that it was not their jurisdiction, and that I would need to contact the OPP. I did that the next morning, after I’d had a rest and a bit of sleep. I also called my credit card company and bank, informing them about what had happened. They referred me on to the Anti Fraud Agency of Canada.
My local OPP branch told me there wasn’t a lot they could do, since the name and number were both likely fake, and they didn’t have the resources to follow it through. They also referred me on to the Anti Fraud Agency of Canada.
I didn’t need to cancel my credit card, since I hadn’t given out the number for it. The next Monday I went in to my bank in person and told them about what had happened. They made a note on my file and said they had their own anti fraud agency who would be contacting me in the next 3 to 10 business days, and if I was indeed a victim of fraud, I would be reimbursed the money. I really hoped that would work out. But later in the day, they phoned me back and said that, since I’d taken the money out myself legitimately, they could not reimburse me – it was not in their anti fraud agreement.
I had also phoned the Anti Fraud Agency of Canada earlier in the day, and it was a short phonecall. They just asked for the details – what kind of fraud, the numbers, the names, and the email address. They told me there wasn’t a very high chance of me being refunded, but I was to keep the evidence for the next 5 years, since sometimes people had gotten refunded even 5 years later.
The full story -
On Friday, March 16th, 2018, I received a phone call from 1 [phone redacted], at around 1:30 pm, which I missed. I phoned the number back around 2:00 pm. I was informed that I was speaking with Officer Kevin _____ from the CRA. He gave me his badge number and told me to write it down - SH12963. I thought maybe I was being audited and my heart sank, but it turned out to be way worse. Officer Kevin told me that the CRA had a case against me in their files stating that I'd been intentionally fraudulent in paying my income tax between 2011 and 2017. I did turn eighteen in 2010 and had to begin paying taxes at that time. They told me in legal, technical terms, that they were filing a court case against me on 4 major charges under an act that I do not remember the name of, #66331, and were suing me for $50,000 to $60,000 (which later became $60,000 to $80,000.) I tried to write down the charges as they were telling me, but it was too complex for me to follow, since I am not familiar with these terms. They told me I had defrauded the CRA of $5800+, but were planning to take it to court at this time to resolve the crime I had committed against the CRA. They told me my court case file number was CH199YT2, and that I could look it up online. I was too busy talking with them to be able to do that. A couple days later when I checked the number on the Canadian court website, I found nothing. They asked if I had a lawyer to speak for me and if so, could I give them the lawyer’s number. I did not have a lawyer. They informed me that in an hour or so, all my bank accounts would be frozen, my car and house would be seized and the police would be at my door in 45 minutes to arrest me. I would be imprisoned for 20 days, and it would be non-bailable. They told me the police had my arrest warrant.
Immediately I became extremely frightened and went into fight-or-flight mode, to try to handle this situation. I didn’t own a house, so I’d be fine, as long as they didn’t seize my father’s house, which I was living in. I didn’t know what was possible or how this might affect my family. I did have a car though. I had no way of paying for $60,000 in sued charges, nor the lawyer’s fees. I had never been to court and had no knowledge of how it worked. I was extremely frightened at the thought of being imprisoned in jail. And I wondered how this would affect my work, if I had to suddenly go to jail. I work with children as a nanny and often need a police check to do my work. Having a criminal record could be very bad for my career.
I told them I had no knowledge of this offense that I had supposedly committed and I asked if there was a way to resolve it outside of court. They told me that now the police would be there in 15 minutes to arrest me, but it might be possible to do an absolvement outside of court, and they would check into it. ‘Officer Kevin’ then referred me on to the next department, an ‘Officer’ named Jack Peterson, whom I talked to the remainder of the time. He told me his badge ID was 41-268-455, and he also told me to write it down. ‘Officer Jack’ soon told me that my voice was breaking up over the phone. He asked where I was. I told him I was in my house in my bedroom. He asked me to go elsewhere so he could hear me better. I went downstairs and outside. He told me that since it seemed I had no knowledge of the fraud committed, and it could in fact be the responsibility of my accountant, it would be possible to absolve my court order if I agreed to 3 conditions. One condition was that I was to tell no one of these proceedings. I didn’t like that condition, since I usually talk to my father about major financial decisions and I asked why. He told me that if my accountant found out, he would probably try to get out of his responsibility for his crime. He also told me that not every case gets a chance to be resolved outside of court, so I needed to respect this chance I was being given to prove myself innocent. They told me they were giving me a chance for absolvement outside the court because I had a previously clear criminal record and because I had told them I was unaware of the crime committed. If other people found out, they would want the same chance. I told him I understood and agreed. I don’t remember the other two conditions, but he emphasized that I was supposed to be entirely honest with him, and to keep this information to myself, or else the absolvement would not go through. He told me my arrest warrant was put on hold and I had 2 hours to resolve this issue. I had to stay on the telephone line with him the entire time or else, again, the absolvement would not go through. I was not to hang up or put him on hold or disrupt this call in any way. If I would, they would take it to mean that I was not interested in resolving this issue outside of court, and the charges would be filed, and I would be arrested.
I was outside without a jacket and I was cold, so I asked if I could get my things. He told me to go inside, get what I needed, a pen and paper, photo ID and driver’s license and my wallet, car phone charger and come back outside to my car to talk to him. They told me I would need to pay the entire amount - $5,800+ directly as an absolvement. They wanted to do it via email, over my phone, but my phone was not working properly so I was not able to do that. I told him I could do it on my laptop. He said that would not work, it had to be on my phone. I told him I could access my email if I was not on the call with him. He said that the courts would not recognize that as a valid reason to disrupt the phone call, if there was another option available. We could only end the phone call for a valid reason. He told me of another option – I would need to go to my bank and withdraw the funds directly. He asked me where I did my banking and what kind of bank accounts I had. I told him my bank and that I had a chequing, savings, and an investment savings account, which was not easily accessible. It would take me a few days to access it. I did not tell him any of my account numbers. He asked for my postal code and told me drive to my bank and he would direct me from there. So I drove in to St. Mary’s to my local branch.
He tested me and asked what I was going to tell the bank teller about the reason I was withdrawing the funds. I said I didn’t know, and asked what he thought would be a good thing to say. He said to tell the clerk that I had a family medical emergency. He told me I had to keep the phone in my pocket the entire time so that he could hear my conversation with the clerk, and so we could stay on the line. So I went in to my bank and withdrew everything from my savings and chequing accounts in the form of cash, over $1000. He had told me to ask to withdraw from my investment savings for a fee, maybe several hundred dollars, but I forgot to ask. I only had a bit over $1000, so I couldn’t pay the whole absolvement fee. He told me I needed to be completely honest with him and not try to defraud the CRA while trying to absolve my case.
‘Officer Jack’ asked if I was on Queen St. I told him I was on a side road off of it. He directed me to the nearby Mac’s to turn the cash into some taxable receipts, which I forget the name of, that I could bring to the CRA office so that my court files would be released. He said he didn’t know if Mac’s had the taxable receipt forms, but for now I should just get Steam gift cards instead. I was unfamiliar with these giftcards and didn’t know what they were for, and I was too busy to even check them. He directed me to get 10 of them for $100 each. He told me that sometimes the clerks will ask questions if I buy a large amount of expensive giftcards, and that I needed to figure out what I was going to say if I was asked questions. He told me to say that I was going out of town and that these cards were gifts for my nephews and nieces. He said that sometimes these cards are used for paying bills and rent, and if the clerk thinks I’m using it to pay bills, they will keep some of the money on the card and only part of it will be useful. He said I should again put the phone in my pocket and talk to him once inside the building and let him help to direct me to the giftcards. I did that. The till only let me buy about 3 of the cards before it crashed. The clerk did some phoning and told me it should be good to go in a few minutes. In the meantime I went back to my car to talk to ‘Officer Jack’ again. He told me to scratch the back of the card and read the codes to him. I thought he asked this so that they could keep track of what I was doing and have proof that I was following through with what they asked, so that they knew I was sincere about trying to rectify this issue outside of court, so I did it. He told me to go on to the MacDonald’s Independent store to get the rest of the cards, but first to check one more time to see if they could go through at the till yet. They couldn’t. When I got back to my car the second time, to talk to ‘Officer Jack’, he informed me that I had one hour left before the arrest warrant for me would go out. I still had to buy 7 more giftcards and take the cards down to the CRA office before the files of my court case could be released. He also wondered if I had a credit card. I said I did. He said that after I had bought the rest of the cards, I should go to another branch of my bank and withdraw $5000 or as much as I could from my credit card. I had to go to another branch of my bank so I wouldn’t raise suspicion.
I went to the Independent grocery store and bought 7 more cards. I was really worried – would I be able to do all I needed to in time to get my arrest warrant cancelled? What if the police showed up at my home and asked my family if I was home and told them they had an arrest warrant for me?
I went to Stratford and ‘Officer Jack’ directed me to the local branch of my bank. I couldn’t remember at first where it was, since I didn’t go there often, but then I remembered. I went inside, again he asked me to have my phone in my pocket, so he could hear what was said. I told the teller that I had a family emergency and that I’d already taken all the money out of my chequing and savings accounts but then I realized that I could take out money with my credit card. She said I could withdraw $5000 using my credit card. She was skeptical, but gave it to me in cash. She told me I would have high interest fees if I did that. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just asked her to do it anyway. She wondered if she should set up an appointment for me to talk to a clerk on Monday, but I said I would look into it myself.
From there, the ‘CRA officer’ directed me to Walmart to buy more cards. He told me that they would look into my crime and if they found out that it was my accountant’s responsibility, I would be refunded for all of these giftcards. He also said that my arrest warrant was now on hold, but until I brought the giftcards to the nearest CRA office, it would not be cancelled. He wondered if I was feeling stressed. He said I sounded stressed and offered I could take a break, even if I just wanted to sit in my car for a few minutes and set the phone down, that would be fine. I told him that yes, this was emotionally stressful for me and I needed a break to use the washroom and get water. He told me I could do that. So first I did that and then I got a bit of food and I got 10 of the $100 giftcards from Walmart. I did all of that with the phone on the line in my pocket. When I got back to my car, however, the officer told me that his colleague had informed him that the CRA offices would be closing soon and I would need to hurry to finish before the end of the day. They were open Saturday mornings, but they wouldn’t be able to work on the case then, only Monday, and I needed to provide the funds for absolvement before then. So I couldn’t rest.
He directed me on to EB Games. I could only get 3 $100 giftcards there. Again I had to scratch the back of the cards and give the codes to the officer. From there I was directed to Staples, 2 different Shopper’s Drug Marts, Sobey’s, another Mac’s, and Walmart 3 times, to buy more cards and send him the codes every time, staying on the phone with this officer the entire time, and regularly reporting back to him and receiving instruction from him. He directed me to stores when I didn’t know the location. I gave suggestions when I thought I could help the process. I even thanked the officer several times for helping me through this alternative to going to court and being imprisoned. Altogether I bought 88 Steam giftcards – 22 $50 cards and 66 $100 cards.
At the Staples, the cashier said she needed the manager to check on the money, since it was a large purchase. Instead, another employee was able to do that. When I got back to my car, the ‘officer’ asked me if I didn’t need the manager to check the purchase. I said no, another employee had been able to do it. That reinforced to me that he really was listening when I went in to the stores and my phone was in my pocket.
At one point he told me not to be too confident. And he reminded me that sometimes people think these cards will be used to pay bills or participate in a fraud and that the clerks may suspect this, but I should tell them it was for gifts and I knew what I was doing. He said I also needed to make sure I looked happy – if I looked sad or depressed, they might think something is wrong, and not sell me the cards. . I usually told the cashier that the cards were for gifts and they always believed me. The cashier at the first Shopper’s Drug Mart told me she wished that someday she would have the money to spend like these 10 $100 giftcards I was buying. I smiled, but sadly thought to myself that I wished that I did have that money!
At another Shopper’s Drug Mart, I didn’t have the cash to buy the last card. When I got to my car, the officer asked me if I could try to buy more with my credit card. He told me to tell the cashier that I hadn’t had enough cash before, but I’d just realized that I could use my credit card. The cashier believed me and I bought more cards.
The officer was very persuasive and professional. He never got angry. He thanked me for my patience. At one point he told me that the CRA values their customers and wouldn’t want me to be wrongly accused. He also told me several times that I needed to be very honest with him for the absolvement to work.
I was instructed to go to Walmart several times. The officer asked me if I could go back in but pay for my purchase at a different till, so I wouldn’t be suspected. I did that. I also did get a 10 minute break at that time, where I ate my food and cried and tried to gather courage.
At one point I even wondered if it was maybe a scam. But in the face of two evils, a scam vs a court case, being sued, having my assets taken, and going to jail, I figured that it was safer to just go with it. I thought that if it did turn out to be a scam, I’d take it to the police. If I took it to the police now, for all I knew, they would imprison me on the spot, if they already had an arrest warrant for me. I really didn’t have much time to think about it at all, I was so busy being sent from one store to the next and reading out all the cards’ 15 digit codes to the officer.
When I got to Sobey’s it was around 7:00pm and the officer told me I just had to get the last giftcards and then we were done for the day and I could go home. He would phone me the next day at 9am and instruct me where to go to take the giftcards that morning. He told me again that I must not tell anyone – this was imperative for the absolvement to work. He said he’d had many other people who’d talked about it and their absolvement case had not worked out. I told him that likely my family would be worried about me and I was very emotionally distressed by the whole event, I wondered if I could tell them that I had had a financial/legal emergency. He said I could tell them that I had a financial emergency – that I’d had to deal with some things with my accountant, but that I shouldn’t mention the legal part of it or tell them what was going on. I agreed to that. I was so relieved to be about done. I went and bought the last cards. But when I got back to my car, he told me that the first $2000 of the giftcards was void – the cards had been defective. He said I needed to have all the money for the absolvement to work, so I had to buy another $2000 worth of more cards, using my credit card. They would contact the Steam company and I would be refunded on Tuesday next week.
I was so disappointed to realize I still had more to do. At Walmart again, the ‘officer’ instructed me to buy 4 extra $100 giftcards to cover the affidavit for removing the court case. His team had informed him of the extra fee. Finally as I sat in the Walmart parking lot for the third time, reading out another set of 10 $100 giftcard codes to the officer, I ran out of minutes on my phone. I was very worried – although I’d warned him that my phone might run out of minutes, he had told me it shouldn’t since he was using a toll free number, and earlier he had told me that if I hung up the phone, the arrest warrant for me would go out. I went in to Walmart to try to buy more minutes for my phone. I wasn’t able to, since I have my phone plan with PetroCan there were no cards that worked. But I discovered that Walmart had wifi. I had a phoning app that worked on wifi. So I phoned the officer back using wifi and told him what happened. He answered as ‘CRA Headquarters’ and instructed me to write down this email address – [email redacted]. He told me to take photos of the rest of the codes on the giftcards and email them to him on that email. I did that.
Then he informed me that there was something else he had to tell me. He said that his superiors were suspicious that I was still trying to defraud them. I had told him that I had only $5000, but here I was coming up with more funds on my credit card to pay for the $2000 extra cards. He said his team had found out that I actually had a $10,000 credit card limit, and that I had lied to them about how much money I had available, even though I had not given him my credit card information. He had told his superiors that I wasn’t trying to defraud the CRA, but they had told him that I now needed to come up with an additional $3000 worth of giftcards to prove my sincerity in the matter. It was 10 pm at that time. He informed me that I needed to buy these cards before midnight that night, or else the police would be at my door at 9am the next morning to arrest me and the court case would proceed on Monday. He said I would have a criminal record and my social insurance number would be blacklisted. I didn’t know how this would negatively impact my life, and it really frightened me, so I told him that I was not guilty of more fraudulence and I did want to clear it all up before midnight. He said I didn’t need to stay on the phone with him continually – and I couldn’t either, because I didn’t have constant wifi and I had no minutes – but I needed to get 15 more $100 cards from Walmart, and 15 more $100 cards from Staples. He said I needed to hurry – I had to get this done in 15 to 25 minutes, and he would call me back at that time to check in. So I went to find 15 more $100 giftcards. The first 5 went through the till, but the last ones didn’t. The cashier had to call a couple of his co-workers over to help him. One lady asked me, “this isn’t for the government, is it?” She said she’d almost been caught by a scam like that. I usually put effort into being an honest person, but I’d been so used to having to lie to cashiers all day about why I was buying the giftcards, that I said no it wasn’t. I told them not to try to go though with the rest of the giftcards. I went away with the five I’d bought.
Finally I had a little space of time to think – I had been on the phone with this man since 2pm. I paced the aisles at Walmart, and wondered if I should risk being arrested and just phone my father and ask his advice. I finally realized, this doesn’t make sense! I found the cashier who’d asked me if it was for the government and I told her, yes, it was. I was so relieved to realize that the chance of me going to jail and having a court case against me and all these horrible things happen to me was no longer a possibility. She encouraged me to call the police. I did that and they asked me to go in to the Stratford police office. I did that and told them what had happened. They told me that it was not their jurisdiction, and that I would need to contact the OPP. I did that the next morning, after I’d had a rest and a bit of sleep. I also called my credit card company and bank, informing them about what had happened. They referred me on to the Anti Fraud Agency of Canada.
My local OPP branch told me there wasn’t a lot they could do, since the name and number were both likely fake, and they didn’t have the resources to follow it through. They also referred me on to the Anti Fraud Agency of Canada.
I didn’t need to cancel my credit card, since I hadn’t given out the number for it. The next Monday I went in to my bank in person and told them about what had happened. They made a note on my file and said they had their own anti fraud agency who would be contacting me in the next 3 to 10 business days, and if I was indeed a victim of fraud, I would be reimbursed the money. I really hoped that would work out. But later in the day, they phoned me back and said that, since I’d taken the money out myself legitimately, they could not reimburse me – it was not in their anti fraud agreement.
I had also phoned the Anti Fraud Agency of Canada earlier in the day, and it was a short phonecall. They just asked for the details – what kind of fraud, the numbers, the names, and the email address. They told me there wasn’t a very high chance of me being refunded, but I was to keep the evidence for the next 5 years, since sometimes people had gotten refunded even 5 years later.
Organizer
Monica Rose
Organizer
Saint Marys, ON
