Items on CRA scam calls
I’ve had three Canada Revenue Agency scam phone calls so far Monday and it’s not 4 pm yet.
CBC link to a radio segment about call centres in India and how impossible it is to police the problem from Canada.
La Presse’s Tristan Péloquin deliberately went down the rabbit hole with one of these calls and describes what happened and what he was instructed to do.
Just now, I tried it: I pressed “1” as the recorded voice said, and a human being came on the line. “Exactly what is it I’m charged with?” I asked him, patrician like, and I was immediately cut off.
Ephraim 16:51 on 2020-09-07 Permalink
I ask for service in French…. they just hang up now.
Douglas 17:00 on 2020-09-07 Permalink
I pressed 1 and asked him when he was going to arrest me because I was waiting all day.
He taunted and hung up.
walkerp 19:40 on 2020-09-07 Permalink
I am finding it harder and harder to keep these guys on the call for any length of time. I think they have new orders to hang up at the slightest suspicion. It’s a really good test of one’s acting skills. I would be curious to know how they are coached to decide if they have a real mark on the line.
When I do get them believing, my reveal is not to be aggressive to them. I am sympathetic that they are just as much trapped in our unequal global system. I try to get them to be conscious of the impact of their behaviours and that they should use their skills in a more positive endeavour.
Kate 09:16 on 2020-09-08 Permalink
walkerp, that’s a compassionate take on the whole thing. The CBC reporter in the piece I linked had the impression the people working the phones in India were not naive, and knew full well they were actors in a scam. What kind of response did you get when you told them they were scamming people and should do better?
walkerp 10:47 on 2020-09-08 Permalink
Usually they hang up at that point. The one guy that debated me tried to argue that he was providing a necessary service (it was the virus removal scam). We just deadlocked and called it a day. I do not expect any immediate success, just hope to put a tiny thought into their brain that may change their thinking.
Of course, they know it is a scam, but it’s much easier to swallow actually doing it when you don’t have to think about the impact on real people. I think they tell themselves we are all rich and can afford it. In some cases that may be true, but I suspect it is usually the elderly who may have a fixed income that fall for it. I try to play on their sympathies of somebody’s grandmother losing money they desperately need.
Mark Côté 19:51 on 2020-09-08 Permalink
I just watched the first few episodes of “The Business of Drugs” on Netflix, and it’s easier to feel sympathy for a lot of people involved in the drug trade (and there are *a lot* of people involved) when you see how incredibly difficult their lives are, at least over where the drugs originate. I have a feeling it’d be similar for these scammers. Are all these things hurting humanity? Absolutely. Do many of these people have real alternatives for making any sort of a living? Barely if at all.
MarcG 20:57 on 2020-09-08 Permalink
I agree with Mark, nobody would choose that job over something meaningful.