VIEWPOINT: Scammers create tax-time turmoil with Canada Revenue Agency log in
Published 9:00 am Monday, May 18, 2026
Scammers have my number this tax season. Literally.
I just received a text message from “Service Canada” stating it has found some discrepancies in my 2025 tax assessment and a hold has been placed on my benefit payments.
Service Canada does not send text messages requesting urgent action, personal information or clicks on links.
If you don’t know this, the message, which is actually an image of what looks to be a boilerplate letter, could be convincing. It’s in French and English. It includes a phone number actually used by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
There are other tells, however, that give it away.
One, the message comes from an undisclosed sender, and the “letter” is made out to no one. Another tell is the provided web address where you can supposedly sort things out. It ends in .com, not .ca as is used by the Government of Canada.
Should you load the email address in a web browser, and are able to access the site, you get a fake Government of Canada page where you’re asked to provide your social insurance number, with further personal information requested as you continue.
Finally, the letter is “signed” by Marie-Chantal Girard, president of the Public Service Commission of Canada, an independent agency unrelated to Service Canada.
The ruse was easy to spot, but still upsetting as I’m currently dealing with another scam, one related to the CRA that occurred without my knowing.
A fraudster managed to use my email address to access and change information in my CRA account. Thankfully, this prompted several emails from the actual CRA, notifying me of what was going on.
The next step in this scam is to use the victim’s email address to sign up with numerous websites.
Moments after receiving my CRA emails, I found myself subscribed with businesses and services world over, from a DVD store in Spain, to a communications company in the UK, to a company that makes energy gels from maple and salt.
I’m told this barrage of emails is to distract you from, or raise suspicion towards, the CRA emails.
Instead of worrying about the junk emails, I immediately contacted the real CRA to report what happened.
My account remains locked as the CRA investigates.
According to a recent report by Canadian credit reporting agency TransUnion, the rate of suspected digital fraud attempts in Canada, including account log in attempts, occurred at a higher rate than the global average in 2025.
“Fraud risk appears to be most prevalent at the account login stage, making it one of the higher risk points in the digital consumer lifecycle,” reads the report. “In Canada, 14.2% of account login attempts in 2025 were suspected to be fraudulent, more than three times the global average of 4.3%. The suspected fraud rate for account creation attempts in Canada was 4.6%, showing that risk is present earlier in the lifecycle but more concentrated at the login stage.”
I’ve since taken other measures to protect myself online, and regret not having done so sooner. As increasingly sophisticated tools are made available to scammers, such as Generative AI technologies, so too grows the need for vigilance and taking measures to protect yourself.
Thankfully, the internet offers oodles of information on scams, how to recognize them and how protect yourself, including the following links:
• canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/scams-fraud/recognize-scam.html
• antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm
• reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca/
• cba.ca/for-canadians/scam-prevention
Read more: Salmon Arm RCMP intervene as senior in process of being scammed a second time
Read more: Vernon RCMP warns of common scams as tax season nears
