CRA Phone Scam: How Project Octavia Hit Call Centres

The caller said you owed tax and would be arrested. The call was not from the government. It was a business, run at scale, that Canadian police traced to call centres abroad.

By Siddharth ShankarUpdated October 11, 2026

Few scams are as familiar to Canadians as the call that claims to be from the Canada Revenue Agency. The script is simple: you owe tax, a warrant is coming, pay now. Project OCTAVIA shows that behind the voice on the phone there was an organized operation with many call centres.

What happened

According to a Public Safety Canada briefing note, the scam had targeted Canadians since 2014 and reportedly operated out of India. The RCMP's Greater Toronto Area financial crime unit began its investigation in October 2018, working with the Canada Revenue Agency, the Canada Border Services Agency, FINTRAC, India's Central Bureau of Investigation and American authorities.

On February 12, 2020, the RCMP arrested and charged two people. A Canada-wide warrant was issued for a third suspect, a foreign national. In India, 39 illegal call centres in the Noida and New Delhi areas were shut down.

How it worked

Callers pretended to be from the tax agency and pressured people into paying supposed tax debts. The note describes pressure, not a technical attack. The fear of arrest or legal action is the entire mechanism.

The briefing note also credits public reporting to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre as having played a key role. Each report added a data point about numbers, scripts and payment routes, which helps investigators connect separate complaints into one case.

What was exposed

The note does not describe what personal data the callers held, and we do not guess. What the scam took was money, paid under threat. The cumulative reported losses from 2014 to 2019 were over $16.8 million. Canadians lost $6.4 million in 2018, and reported losses fell to $1.4 million in 2019.

Those numbers include only what was reported. Fraud reporting is widely understood to capture a fraction of what happens, so the true figure is likely higher.

How it ended

Project OCTAVIA is a mixed result. Two people were charged, 39 call centres were shut, and reported losses dropped sharply in 2019. But a third suspect was still being sought under a Canada-wide warrant when the note was written, and we found no document confirming convictions. Charges are not convictions, and we do not treat them as such.

Key facts at a glance

• Investigation began: October 2018
• Arrests and charges: two people, February 12, 2020
• Third suspect: foreign national, Canada-wide warrant
• Call centres shut: 39, in the Noida and New Delhi areas
• Reported losses 2014 to 2019: over $16.8 million
• Reported losses 2018 and 2019: $6.4 million and $1.4 million

How to spot the call

What the note does not say

The briefing note does not give victim counts, the accused's names or any convictions, and it does not say what personal data the callers had. For another Canadian-based scam operation that ended in sentences, see the grandparent scam call centres.

Why this case matters

Scams that look like one angry phone call are often run as organized businesses with scripts, shifts and payment handlers. Project OCTAVIA is a useful example because it shows international cooperation at work, between Canadian police, tax and border agencies, India's federal investigators and American authorities.

It also shows why reporting matters. A call you hang up on feels like a small event, but a report adds one more piece of evidence that investigators can use to link the pattern.

Nothing here can be undone for the people involved, but you can prepare. See the guides on how scammers find your phone number and email, what an exposed phone number means and how to prevent identity theft. You can also try our free phone number exposure check.