"Ontario man" charged in connection with infamous CRA telephone scam

 The RCMP have arrested a Brampton man in connection with the infamous CRA scam:

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested a Brampton man as part of Project OCTAVIA, which was launched in Oct. 2018 to combat telephone fraudsters that are targeting Canadians.

"These telephone fraudsters, operating from overseas, have been targeting the Canadian public since 2014," the RCMP said in a news release on Wednesday. "Despite a number of police raids on illegal call centres in India, and arrests in Canada, these fraudsters continue to modify their deceitful pitch and target Canadians."

And who is this fraudster who has been ripping off his fellow Canadians? Let's go all the way down to paragraph 12 and have a boo:

Abhinav Bector has been charged with fraud over $5,000, procession of proceeds of crime and laundering of the proceeds of crime in connection with the investigation, police said. 

Cumulatively between 2014 and 2020, the CRA scam alone has resulted in Canadians losing more than $18.5 million, the RCMP said.

In the CRA phone scam, callers from India impersonate CRA, RCMP, or other federal agents in order to intimidate victims into paying non-existent fines or taxes.

The RCMP also issued a warning to fraudsters and potential fraudsters:

"Fraudsters need to take heed and realize there are consequences to their unlawful activities: criminal charges and prosecution in a court of law," RCMP Sgt. Ken Derakshan said in a statement. "Fraud and money laundering cause devastating financial and psychological consequences to their victims."

I'm sure that stern warning will be enough to set those would-be fraudsters on the straight and narrow.

It would be interesting to know, although we never will, how much of that 18.5 million went back to India (and apparently China, as well) and then was used to bring more friends and relatives to Canada. 

We know that question can never be answered, of course, because, you know, racism.