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It started with a threatening voicemail, demanding thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency be handed over.

Jarek Sieczka was told he owed $7,989 and if he didn’t go to the bank immediately to get the money, there would be a warrant out for his arrest.

“When you talk about court and warrants out for your arrest, it just sounds very realistic to me,” the Winnipeg man told Global News.

The caller, with an Ontario area code, told Sieczka he owed back taxes from 2012 to 2017.

“The red flags started popping up left right and centre for me.” Tweet This

Sieczka clued into the fact the phone call was a scam but he wanted to see how far the caller would take him.

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The scammer coached him to withdraw money from his bank and to tell the staff it was for a family emergency, not to pay taxes. Then the caller pointed out the nearest Bitcoin ATM, at a local gold buyer store. He wanted Sieczka to send the money through the digital currency.

This is something that should raise alarms according to RCMP.

“Bitcoin is relatively new in the digital currency market but it’s a method of payment that I believe is untraceable so of course that should be a flag saying if you don’t know where your money is going and it can’t be followed you definitely don’t want to send it,” Sgt. Paul Manaigre said.

The RCMP said the CRA phone scam is common around tax time and if you really owe money you will get a letter from the CRA, not a threatening email or phone call.

Coverage of CRA scams on Globalnews.ca:

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The CRA said there are many types of fraud and new ones are invented daily. On its website it warns taxpayers of scams requesting information such as social insurance numbers, credit card or banking information or a passport number.

“Cases of fraudulent communication could also involve threatening or coercive language to scare individuals into paying fictitious debt to the CRA,” according to the website.

READ MORE: Fraudsters pose as Canada Revenue Agency in tax season text message scam

Sieczka said he wanted to come forward with his story because he didn’t want people to fall for the trap.

“To me on a scale of one to 10 [in believability], it sounded like an 8 or 8 and a half,” he said. “Just how they talked.”

David Horton from Interfusion Media works on security services for corporate and residential clients. He said he’s had more and more people coming forward with fears about scams.

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“Scams are becoming very complex and the best thing is to educate yourself.” Tweet This

Horton said the best thing you can do is not to engage a scammer and don’t reveal any information about yourself.

Sieczka in the end revealed he was scamming the scammer. He called the person out for trying to trick Canadians out of cash.

LISTEN: Winnipegger gets scammer to admit what he’s doing:

The person on the phone apologized to Sieczka and said he makes $100 per person he successfully scams.

“I know it’s wrong, it’s not a right way to earn money.” Tweet This

“I will find a real job, alright sir,” the scammer told Sieczka. “I’m sorry.”

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