Aldergrove Star, April 03, 2014

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ALDERGROVE STA AR Your Hometown Community Newspaper for over 55 Years

| Thursday, April 3, 2014

‘Aftershocks’ Women ‘A aare Tourney Champs!

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Page 3: Agri-business hurt by recycling plan Kodiaks Raise Championship Cup!

PAGE 17 PA

Income tax scammers defraud locals By MONIQUE TAMMINGA and VIKKI HOPES Aldergrove Star

New phone scams are hitting Fraser Valley residents hard and police want to warn people not to fall for it and call to report it. Recently, several residents have received suspicious phone calls from an unknown caller who alleges to be an officer from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The male caller says that a review of the person’s previous year’s taxes shows their account to be in $3,000 in arrears. The caller threatens that the debt must be paid within a half hour and if not, it will result in his or her arrest. In some cases, the fraudster is choosing to call people with an ethnic last name and threatening deportation if they don’t pay up. The resident is then instructed to go to a local store and purchase a prepaid credit card and call back with the card number and the PIN (Personal Identification Number). The call is coming from a prepaid cellphone making it impossible to track and the prepaid credit card is also untraceable, said police. “We’ve had six reports of this scam just this week,” said Langley RCMP Cpl. Holly Marks. Similar occurrences have taken place in other jurisdictions in the Lower Mainland with a variety of telephone numbers and circumstances. In North Vancouver, fraudsters represented themselves as police officers and may suggest the unsuspecting citizen can avoid arrest by paying up. Recently, in Surrey, residents have been getting calls from a fraudster claiming to be a CRA officer saying the taxpayer may receive a refund or benefit and then steals the victim’s identity. However, an Abbotsford woman was taken for $25,000 last month. Const. Paul Walker said the scammers used the same tactic that has snared other victims. The woman was instructed to go to a store, load $25,000 onto pre-paid Visa credit cards and then call back a number that was provided to her. She was instructed to provide the Visa number on the front of the cards, as well as the PIN number on the back. This enabled the scammers to use those credit card numbers online, likely to obtain cash advances, with no ability to identify the recipient. Walker said the woman realized she had been scammed after she shared the story with family members, who had read about the fraud through news articles earlier in the week. They then reported the matter to police. Walker said that since police issued public notice of the scam on Tuesday they have received 20 complaints a day from people receiving the fraudulent calls. Walker said in another instance a woman was defrauded of $4,000 after the caller threatened to have her son deported if she didn’t pay her back taxes. Police and the CRA continue to remind people to be cautious of anyone calling and claiming to be with the CRA, particularly if they are being aggressive or threatening. Anyone who wants to verify the authenticity of a CRA phone number can contact 1-800-959-8282 or visit cra-arc.gc.ca/cntct/phn-eng.html.

MATTHEW HOEKSTRA PHOTOS

Aldergrove Kodiaks gleefully hoisted the Pacific Junior Hockey League championship cup on Monday night at Richmond Arena after defeating the Richmond Sockeyes 5-1 in game 7 of the final series.The cup was presented to Kodiaks captain Kenny Prato (photo at right) by the PJHL officers, and Prato then shared it with the team who gave everything for the victory over the league-leading team. The Kodiaks now advance to the provincials in Nelson, April 10-13 for the Cyclone Taylor Cup. The winner of this series advances to the Western Canadian championship, hosted by Abbotsford on April 17-20. Story, photos page 15.

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