A persistent telephone fraud scam has been reported to Battlefords RCMP.
These calls have been made to residences all over the Battlefords, according to the RCMP.
They say the caller states the resident has won a prize for a previous subscription with Reader's Digest. The caller is persuasive and calls back numerous times to try to convince the resident the prize is legitimate.
If the target continues to resist the caller, the scammer will have someone call who claims to be from a Canadian government department in an attempt to legitimize the original caller. On numerous occasions the second caller claims to be from the Canada Revenue Service and explains how the target will need to pay taxes on their winnings.
The number has been showing up on call display as 1-877-867-9967.
"These crimes focus on the elderly, however we all need to be vigilant," says Cpl Jason Teniuk of Battlefords Municipal RCMP in a press release.
Cpl. Teniuk offers the following tips for fraudulent telephone calls:
keep track of contests, draws and lotteries you enter;
challenge a caller who says you've won a prize to tell you where and when you entered;
there are no prize fees or taxes in Canada. Canadians do not need to pay taxes on any winnings even if they come from out of the country;
tell them you will need to check their claims out with the RCMP or your local police. If the pitch is legitimate, there should be no problem. The fraudsters will insist you keep this quiet for your own safety, so speaking with the police should not be an issue;
if you have call display and a number shows up, tell them you need to check it on 411. You canrun the number in any search engineand see what is associated to it;
take your time. Find out who the company or person is and check into their claims. If you win something there should not be any rush, time is on your side, and if you are getting lots of pressure to do something, that is a warning sign. Companies want people to know about contest winners.
"Remember that these people will spend a great deal of time with you and are very believable," Cpl. Teniuk warns. "They are smooth talkers and will bring in others to offer credibility to their story. As always, if it sounds to good to be true, it usually is."
