How To Spot a Fake Canadian Job Offer

Immigrating to Canada is a bold choice. The thing at the front of your mind is most likely landing a Canadian job offer, as soon as possible. Canada literally has hundreds of thousands of positions open in their labour market right now. But there are always a select few bad people who will exploit the system to take advantage of honest, hopeful immigrants.   

People like you are just trying to find a good, well-paying position so they can support themselves and their families when they arrive in Canada. No matter where you are in the Canadian immigration process, if you are planning to immigrate to Canada and have yet to secure a job offer, there are a few Canadian job offer scams you should be aware of to protect yourself and your finances. So, let's take a closer look at how to spot a fake Canadian job offer.      

Popular Job Offer Scams

Canadian Police have warned against the following scam in particular, as they receive more and more complaint of people who have been taken advantage of:

A scam company will use something called ‘fake maker’ to create a fake website, usually a mirror of a legitimate company's site, along with all the relevant information you might check for, such as social media and online reviews. Further, they generate official-looking bank deposit forms.

The first thing that happens is they will find your resume on popular employment websites such as LinkedIn or Monster. A person will reach out claiming to be a recruitment consultant working on behalf of a company. 

Next, they will contact you in a polite and professional manner with a seemingly valid job offer. They will inquire if you are available to interview and what your preferred method would be. Usually, they try to steer toward IM based interviews (red flag) as opposed to video chat. After a short and seemingly ‘easy’ interview, they will make you a job offer and send you employment forms quite swiftly, this on its own is a second red flag, professional companies tend to interview multiple people and follow due process which takes time.

Then you complete the forms, including banking information, identification, etc. which they can use later on. At this point, they will ask you to make a deposit into their account to secure the job offer. They will claim it is their ‘fee’ for sourcing the job and perhaps that the company may pay you back once you start working. 

They may even provide you with a fake offer of employment to buy themselves more time, which you will unknowingly submit with your Canadian visa application and end up being rejected and banned from applying for a period.  

Don’t be a Victim of a Scam!

ONE. You should know that it is employers who pay recruiters to fill positions for them, so you should never pay a recruiter for a job. It’s simple, they can’t guarantee you the position, you would still have to interview with the actual company for it.

TWO. The Canadian government has made it illegal for any exchange of money to be made for a job offer or job offer letter. So if you submit a fraudulent job offer letter with your immigration application, you could have your application denied indefinitely.

THREE. Your job offer must have the details of the company on the letterhead, including registration and contact number. It will be verifiable on the internet. So in short, do not pay anyone for a job offer.

Some red flags to look out for when a recruiter contacts you with a Canadian job offer: 

• If you can work from home
• If you are asked to pay for the job application or training materials for the job
• Your skills or experience don’t seem important to the employer
• The person you are dealing with is working from a free email address such as @gmail.com
• The job offer contains spelling or grammatical errors, real company documents are sound

Lastly, if you are asked for any sensitive information such as your social insurance number, national identification number, driver's license number, and most importantly your bank account number, do not provide this. Professional organizations will not need these details for a job offer letter. 

What should be in a job offer letter?

Your job offer letter should come in writing. It must list your role, responsibilities, remuneration, deductions, and conditions of employment. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly it must contain a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) number and an employee number.  

Rounding Up - Don't Fall for Fake Job Offers! 

DO NOT PAY FOR A CANADIAN JOB OFFER. We cannot offer more serious advice than that. We take immigration fraud very seriously and if someone ever contacts you directly claiming to be a representative of CanadianVisa.org, and you haven’t requested our services, we urge you to reach out to us officially right away.  

At the end of the day, you will need to look out for the warning signs and only go ahead with someone if you feel that they have your best interests at heart. We cannot assist you in obtaining a Canadian job offer, but we can point you in the right direction and handle the entire Canadian immigration process. By using our accredited Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs) you will not only improve your chances of success in the visa application process, but you will get expert advice on which program is best for your specific needs. Our RCICs are highly qualified and are granted permission by the ICCRC to assist you with your eligibility evaluation, review all your documents and application forms, and submit them to the Canadian government for you. Why take the chance of having your application denied because your forms are incorrect or sent in too late.     

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