Bit of a long read, but definitely eye opening.
The scary part is, they didn’t end up finding out how people’s identities are being stolen, and both CRA and H&R block were somewhat hostile to the investigation.
Tax season is coming up, stay safe out there. Be very careful about who you give your personal information to, and keep a close eye on all your accounts.
How do a couple journalists figure this out yet the government agency, a bank, and H&R block, and the police can’t be bothered?
CBC’s The Fifth Estate is an investigative team, and the TV series has been running for almost 50 years. They have a lot of experience, as well as the drive to uncover news stories like this.
I don’t know about the bank or H&R block (which, that local office, IMO, seems sus), but the CRA and police don’t have the funding to do long term individual investigations like this, unfortunately. The article speaks about a CRA team that was investigating fraud over several years, but then was stopped
edit to add: I saw an earlier post linking a Fifth Estate story about how the CRA was going after whistleblowers (CRA employees who talked to CBC about tax refund fraud)… so, maybe the CRA isn’t as innocent as I thought