By Kendall Robertson

New Scam Targets Immigrants

Feb 27, 2018 | 1:30 PM

PRINCE GEORGE- A Prince George resident is sharing her story after being the victim of a new scam. It’s similar to the old Canada Revenue Agency scam, where fake agents demand you pay outstanding taxes or face jail time. Instead, the new scam is targetting immigrants by telling them to pay a fee or they’ll be deported. “He kept on quoting the immigration law and immigration sections so I thought it was for real, it sounded so genuine,” said Tanya Thomas. Her scammer stayed on the phone with her for three hours while she withdrew thousands of dollars from her bank account, deposited it into a Bitcoin ATM, and ordered her to buy iTunes gift cards with her credit card once she ran out of money. Luckily, a cashier told Thomas she may be getting scammed and that’s when the man hung up the phone. “It was a complete disaster, I lost quite a lot of money.”

Police say this scam is becoming more common in Canada. Officers recommend you hang up the phone if you get a similar call and if you’re unsure, find the proper government phone number and call them back. Government agencies won’t ask for payments in iTunes gift cards or Bitcoin. “The unfortunate thing is these scams come from offshore, people use proxy servers and dialers which will redirect their phone numbers so it’s almost impossible to find out who’s actually on the other end,” said Special Constable, Fred Greene. “If you do get scammed like that, print the information off, bring in all the documents, see if we can track it, a lot of the times we can’t but at least we can educate the public.”