As more people move to the province, they face a higher risk of becoming victims of fraud.
Nathanael Sidharta
Kicker
When Mini Nair and her family moved to St. John’s from India in 2009, they stayed at a friend’s house. She was interested in renting a home after seeing the listing on Kijiji because it had two bedrooms and the rent was within her budget.
The house, she says, was near her son’s school and there was no need for a car. The person who ran the ad asked her for an upfront payment. However, when they drove to see the house, they realized the house number did not exist. At that moment, she realized the advertisement was fraudulent.
“But we didn’t lose anything, we didn’t pay him,” said Nair, a student development officer at College of the North Atlantic.
Accommodation scams are the most common types of fraud targeting new immigrants in Canada. Nair says such scams can happen to anyone. She says it’s not only when college or university classes start and students are desperate to find accommodations. Often the fraud begins with a request for an upfront payment.
“When (students) contact me, what I say is ‘do not pay upfront,’” said Nair, who also does a lot of volunteer work to help newcomers, regardless of which country they are from.
The best way is to meet the person face to face, she says, before any money changes hands.
Scammers often take advantage of the housing crisis and immigrants’ desperation to secure accommodation, she says. Another common scheme she mentioned is a Facebook marketplace scam. Buyers usually look for used items to purchase from marketplace and the fraudulent seller will ask for a payment immediately.
“They tell them to pay the money upfront, and they paid, then they realized the person (removed the ad) from the marketplace and they can’t fight the person.”
She added if newcomers do not know anyone in St. John’s who can help them, they can always contact organizations like the Association for New Canadians or the international office at institutions such as Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic.
“If they contact one of them, somebody would help them to find the right house or (determine) if it’s not a scam.”
Nevra Ozoren, an acting manager at the association, said scammers also try to obtain credit card information through a phone call. They introduce themselves as officials from banking or government institutions. She said they would typically say the bank account is deactivated and ask the victim to transfer the money to reactivate their bank account.
“We all know that any government institutions – they are not requesting confidential information over the phone,” she said.
Email fraud is also common and she says one way to know if it is a scam is if there’s a discrepancy between the sender’s name and the signature.
She said it’s important to check the email address, content and the name.
