March is Fraud Prevention Month: Learn to recognize and report scammers claiming to be the CBSA

OTTAWA, ON, March 3, 2025 /CNW/ - During Fraud Prevention Month, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is warning Canadians about scammers and giving advice on how to recognize, report and protect yourself from fraud.

There are many sophisticated frauds and scams in Canada, and new ones pop up daily. Some frauds and scams attempt to imitate federal government services to gain access to personal and financial information.

The methods and messages used by scammers are always evolving to an ever-changing environment. In some cases, telephone calls may display numbers and employee names that falsely appear to be from the CBSA. Emails may contain official logos, email addresses or employee names and titles to mislead the public.

We would like to remind the public that the CBSA never contacts individuals by email, web, text message or telephone to ask for payment or personal information.

The CBSA never initiates a request for a Social Insurance Number (SIN) or a credit card number by telephone, text, or email. If this happens, please ignore, hang up, don't answer the text or email and report the incident to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

We may call recipients and importers to clarify package declaration details. However, if you receive a call telling you that you must pay duties and taxes on a package that the CBSA is holding and threatens penalties, including jail time, it is a scam.

More information is available on our webpage on how to protect yourself against fraud.

Associated links

• CBSA Protect yourself against fraud
• CBSA Border Information Service (BIS)
• Scams and fraud (CRA)
• RCMP Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
• Three common types of phishing scams

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SOURCE Canada Border Services Agency

Contacts: Media Relations, Canada Border Services Agency, [email protected], 613-957-6500 or 1-877-761-5945