Employment scams on the rise in Atlantic Canada: Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau is warning people to keep an eye out for possible employment scams.

As many students dust off their resumes and begin searching for summer jobs or their first career positions, the Better Business Bureau in Atlantic Canada is warning them about a rise in employment scams.

A 2024 risk report by the Better Business Bureau found that employment scams are the second riskiest in Canada, with a median dollar loss of $2,500. Employment scams are riskiest for people aged 18 to 44.

“Many of the employment scam victims were seeking work-from-home opportunities,” said Julia Lewis, CEO of the Better Business Bureau in Atlantic Canada, in a news release. “As people search for flexible employment options, they need to keep in mind that not all the jobs being posted are legitimate, and remember to do their research before submitting resumes with all their personal information.”

The Better Business Bureau says some employment scammers will send fake cheques with extra funds in the hope the victims will deposit the cheques and send back the excess amount before realizing the cheque has bounced.

Kelsey Burgess said she was looking for work on Facebook when she found a person who said they were need of a personal assistant.

“She gave me a list of all her clients and emails and she just wanted me to write them a letter apologizing to them that she can’t answer them right away,” Burgess said. “I did all of that and then she got me to go over to the store and get Apple gift cards and she would send me an email to do cheques. So after that I cashed in the cheque to my bank account and I thought that that was real.”

Burgess eventually discovered the cheques weren’t go through. She now owes her bank more than $200 as she bought the gift cards using overdraft from her personal account.

“It bothers me that the RCMP can’t do nothing about it seeing as I did get scammed, but I learned my lesson,” Burgess said. “I don’t even bother with Facebook jobs and, honestly, I think they need to stop that. They need to get rid of that. It’s not right that people can just fall for that. People are out there trying so hard to get a job and then they get tricked.”

Jeff Horncastle with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said employment scammers seem to target anyone who has a resume online.

“They’ll offer you the position very quickly and they’ll ask you in one way or another to accept funds into your personal bank account and transfer them elsewhere and, not realizing what you’re doing, you could be contributing to money laundering on top of losing money to a job scam,” he said. “What we’ve seen in the last couple of years is a new variation linked to kind of crypto investment scams where victims are asked to boost products or applications or videos and they end up getting paid at the beginning, which kind of makes it very believable and convincing.

“Down the line, in order to make more money or to move up a level is what they claim, the victim has to put a bit of money into a crypto wallet and it kind of turns into a crypto investment scam and that’s where the sophistication comes in.”

Horncastle recommends people call the Anti-Fraud Centre and police if they’ve been a victim of a scam.

To guard against scams, the Better Business Bureau recommends:

• doing research on the company and the job before applying
• getting all details and contracts in writing
• not rushing into accepting job offers
• not providing social insurance numbers, direct deposit banking information or any private information as part of the application process

-With files from CTV Atlantic’s Alana Pickrell