Tax scam time again-Vernon man loses $11,000

Jan 23, 2018 | 5:56 AM

VERNON — A Vernon resident has lost 11-thousand dollars in the latest telephone scam involving what he thought was a call from the Canada Revenue Agency.

RCMP say the North Okanagan resident received an email and phone call from someone — claiming to be with the agency — who told him he faced jail if he didn’t immediately pay thousands of dollars in back taxes.

The victim was told to make the payment using a Bitcoin terminal, and realized he’d been scammed only after making the transfer.

Police say with tax season underway, there has been a significant increase in these types of scams and they remind the public that the revenue agency never makes contact by phone and never accepts Bitcoin or any form of gift card as payment.