The Most Popular Canadian Immigration Scam in 2020

Of all the scams doing the rounds, the fake email scam is probably the most popular Canadian immigration scam so far in 2020. Scammers take advantage of the fact that everyday we surf hundreds of websites, and naturally when we are interested in a certain topic, for example immigrating to Canada, we may visit multiple websites as we search for useful information. This is where online scam artists seize their opportunity. They will send you unsolicited emails which claim to be from a Canadian immigration website, possibly even fake ones you may have visited, making grand and too “good to be true” claims based on the little information they have about you, usually just a name and an email address. It is up to you to discern what is real or fake in the emails you receive and to help you do this, we would like to point out a few red flags to look out for today and in future.

How to Spot a Scam e-Mail

In the email below you will see a large variety of errors. Read through it and see if you can spot them, then we will discuss some of them as they tend to appear a few times throughout the e-mail.

The Fake Immigration eMail

Can you spot the grammatical errors? The attempts to use technical words that have an entirely different meaning to what the writer thinks? The incorrect sentence structure? This email is a great example because it is just so full of errors it is easy to spot, from a mile away, that it is a scam. No self respecting immigration consultancy would allow emails like this to go out under their name. Now look at the same email below where we have highlighted the errors. Maybe you can even spot a few more. Let us know in the comments section if you do! Let’s take a quick look over some of them. As we mentioned previously, many of the underlined mistakes are repeated a few times and won’t be addressed:

• ”Thanks for you interest to work” - missing and incorrect words: Thank you for your interest in working with…
• ”found Your credential, experience” - poor grammar and capitalization error: found your credentials and experience to be suitable…
• ”employment protocol” - unnecessarily technical word: protocol is defined as an official procedure, which is a $10 word where a $1 would have worked better. To be honest we can’t even figure out what they are trying to say here.
• ”to match” - the entire sentence structure is wrong. It is long and winding, do you feel as lost as we do reading this sentence? That’s because that is how they want you to feel, confused and like they know what they are thinking about, which they do not.
• ”you Contract” - missing word and unnecessary capitalization: send you the contract
• ”oblige you” - wrong word: oblige is defined as making yourself legally bound to something or doing as someone asks, so you would be obliging them by signing the attached contract, not the other way around
• ”mutual respect and sincerity” - trust building words: while language like this has a place, it is clearly being laid on thick here to help build a false sense of trust. Be weary of too much of this kind of language, it is not professional and coercive.

The purpose of an unsolicited email like this is to ‘phish’ for your personal information. When you complete and submit the forms attached, perhaps under the illusion that it may lead to a Canadian job offer or immigration option, you enter personal information with little thought as to what these scammers are capable of doing with the information you provide. Many people have lost thousands of dollars and become totally disheartened about the whole immigration process as a result of falling for these scams. We do not want that to happen to you which is why we hope this has helped in some way. Study the email above and make a mental note of the kind of errors to look out for in an immigration consultancy email, and any email offering services for that matter.

Why Using a Professional Immigration Service to Apply for Your Canadian Visa is So Important

Navigating the Canadian immigration system can be complicated, especially when you have to deal with the added stress of worrying about whether the Canadian visa agency you are dealing with is real or fake. We not only suggest but actively encourage all our clients to check our legitimacy with the Canadian government but also to ensure that they are 100% comfortable with our services and what we offer before you allow us to take that first step with you on your Canadian journey. With the copious amount of forms and documents needed to complete your Canadian visa application and strict submission dates to adhere to, we wouldn’t blame you if you felt nervous about starting the process. But that's what we’re here for. At MDC, we take the stress and hassle out of planning to relocate abroad. Our accredited RCICs (Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants) are ready to evaluate your eligibility, review all documentation and submit all documentation on your behalf. Using an RCIC not only gives you the best possible chance of receiving an ITA but will make the entire process simple and stress-free. We handle the paperwork while you choose your dream job in Canada. All you have to do is complete our online form and we’ll take care of the rest. It's just that simple. The Canadian Anti-Fraud immigration department is constantly cracking down on these cases. If you suspect that you have been a victim of Canadian visa fraud, you can make an official report to the Canadian government online or telephonicall