Online job scams rake in record amounts of money from Canadians

Ashley Valentini set out to make a little extra money for her family, but clicking on an online job ad led her down a financial and emotional spiral. She fell victim to what is commonly referred to as a work or task scam, which is an increasingly common type of fraud costing Canadians millions each year.

“At some point I ran out of money,” says Valentin, a mother of four living in the Montreal area. “I used all my rent money, I borrowed from my mother, I was panicking. I was completely broken.”

In December, Valentini was just ending her maternity leave from her work at a high school. She had been caring for her four children, including her now 14-month-old twin girls. She was searching through various websites, including LinkedIn and Facebook Marketplace, when she came across an ad for a job with a trip planner mobile app.

Initially, she wasn’t sure what the job entailed, but she searched online to find information about the company, that led her to a legitimate business with the same name.

She applied for the job and was assigned a contact who would train her, but also, gain her trust.

“We did training through WhatsApp,” says Valentini. “Basically, I was told I would have to rate and comment on different travel packages, that it was data optimization so that when people look for tour packages, the name of this company would pop up first.”

Elaborate scam

Her trainer eventually explained she would need to put in some of her own money to reserve tour packages to rate them, something that Valentini questioned.

“I was like, why would you have to send your own money, it wasn’t making sense,” she says. “But then the trainer told me I would get it back and that the more money you send the more commission you get and that this is a good thing.”

She did initially receive money. She sent $10 and received $220 in a crypto account. She pocketed that cash and now says she should have stopped there.

It was a scam that appeared elaborate.

Valentini says she was included in a group chat. She was told it included other employees of the company, though she now believes that was part of the ploy to make her trust the process.

She sent in $45, then $100 and continued, and was told that she could only cash out that money and commission once she had completed what the trainer called a “journey,” which meant that there were several steps to complete, and at each one, Valentini had to put in more money.

She was directed to monitor a site she believed showed money adding up and was told she was getting closer to getting her hands on her pay.

When she said she was running out of money, her trainer pretended to lend her $3,500.

“So that was really keeping me going, because I was like, ‘I am going to get the money,’ and at that point I was desperate,” she says. ”When I finally gave up, I had sent $11,651. And her trainer, who knew she had four kids and had sent in her rent money, kept on pressuring her to send more.

On a WhatsApp exchange CTV News verified, the trainer pushed Valentini to borrow more money.

“You can try to apply loan (sic) on that from your bank, and we will can (sic) complete this asap because I also want money you know my condition also,” the trainer said.

In another exchange, Valentini says she has nothing left.

“Have you can (sic) try to ask some more money from your friend, sis?”

Job scams in numbers

Fake online job schemes like this are on the rise. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) says that in 2024, $47-million was lost to these types of scams, a rise from $7-million in 2022. The centre says this represents just a fraction of the loot taken in by the fraudsters.

“We have seen a huge increase in these job scams, and we estimate that only 5 to 10 per cent of victims report,” says Jeff Horncastle, the client and communications officer at the CAFC.

There are several factors for this rise, including the number of people looking for remote jobs. But fraudsters running these scams are also finding more efficient ways to get their hands on their victims’ money using crypto currencies.

“These scammers often use the name of a real company to make you go online and land on the official page of a company, and you fall into the trap that way,” adds Horncastle. “You often also see on a sophisticated website that your money is growing with time, but unfortunately at the end, you are unable to get your money back.”

The centre has tips for online job seekers, including being alert to small details and red flags. For instance, emails from scammers may include a slight alteration in domain names, like an upper case “I” is replaced by a lower case “i”, as scammers try to pass for workers of a legitimate company.

‘How are people so cruel’

Valentini says it was clear the fraudsters she encountered were adept at hooking victims and keeping them paying.

“They knew I had four kids, and that I was struggling,” she said. “I told her (the trainer she was corresponding with) that I had no other money, that I had used my rent money, and she was like, ‘I am sure you can get more, you are going to get money in the end.’”

Valentini reported the scam to police and contacted the bank but was told the money is untraceable and simply gone.

Valentini said she knew little about crypto or remote work but was scared to talk to people around her as she was struggling to untangle herself from the scammers.

“I was afraid someone would say ‘that sounds like a scam,’” she says. “I got paid the first time. I got $220 dollars, so that made me more certain I would get it all back in the end.”

She is trying to raise money to make up for her losses and is now depending on donations and help from friends and family. She is also looking for another job.

“My friend bought me groceries,” she said. “I still owe my mother money. I was just trying to get a job to make more money, and then ... how are people so cruel?”

Many victims are afraid to come forward, but Valentini said she wishes other victims had spoken out more loudly so that she might have avoided this trap. That is why she is willing to talk about her ordeal.

“If I can speak out and prevent people from having to go through this terrible nightmare, then obviously I am going to speak out about it.”