October 1, 2020

First Capital REIT (“First Capital”) alerts employment candidates that employment offer scams are on the rise in Canada. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be an opportunity for scammers to target people seeking employment.

One of the schemes being used by fraudsters are to create fake job advertisements that are followed through with a fake Skype/Zoom interview and fake job offers using falsified documents containing a real companies’ name, logo, or trademark.

One of the first signs of a fraudulent job offer is when the applicant is asked to send any form of payment, for example, to cover job supplies, visa/immigration costs, uniform expenses, etc. Please also note the email address from which the communications are being sent. i.e. if it is a hotmail/gmail address it may not be a legitimate company email.

First Capital, nor any recruitment agency acting on its behalf, would never ever ask job applicants to forward any type of payment in conjunction with a job application/offer of employment. Moreover, a job offer would not be made without first meeting with the candidate.

If you have any concerns about a job offer, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you believe you are a victim of employment offer fraud, we would urge you to contact the local police and/or report the incident to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.