Canada Revenue Agency issues alert about e-mail scams

The Canada Revenue Agency is warning consumers about scam e-mails purporting to be sent from the federal agency.

Unsolicited e-mails claiming to be sent from the CRA should be deleted immediately, the CRA said in an alert Thursday. Consumers should also not follow any linkslisted in the e-mails.

"Do not go to the websites listed in the messages as some of these sites contain harmful software," the federal agency said.

Different versions of the scammay promise payout for a lottery, jackpot or tax refund. The CRA says correspondence with taxpayers is traditionally sent through letter mail.

In January, the federal agency issued a similar warning about a scam that sought bank account numbers and passwords. Consumers were urged to check unsolicited correspondence carefully, looking for typos, grammatical errors and blurry letterhead.

Consumers should report suspect e-mails to Phonebusters, an anti-fraud call centre run by the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP.