More than$ 1.3 Million stolen from the immigrants by crooks

Photo archive, Benoît Philie
The government must do more to educate immigrants of their rights and the functioning of the immigration system in order to prevent that they fall into the trap of fraudsters, according to the lawyer, Stéphane Handfield, specialized in immigration.

Christopher Nardi

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 22:26

UPDATE
Wednesday, December 13, 2017 22:26

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OTTAWA | fraudsters steal more and more money to the new arrivals. Since 2014, the canadian immigrants have given out more than $ 1.3 million and the situation is not improving.

In nearly four years, 2179 immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers who have reported to the authorities have been contacted by crooks who tried to steal money using different strategies.

Of this number, 377 are dropped in the panel and have given an average 3500 $ to the scammers, reveal data from the Canadian anti-fraud Centre (CAFC) obtained by The Journal.

Even more worrying : the number of victims — and the total amount stolen — continued to increase between 2014 (24) and 2016 (155), the last full year compiled by the CAFC. Up to now, in 2017, there are 74 victims of fraud confirmed, but also the entire data will be available in 2018.

“I’m not surprised that the fraudsters are more immigrants, but I am really disgusted by the whole thing, said Stéphane Handfield, a lawyer specializing in immigration. We are increasingly talking about immigration in Canada, which attracts the attention of fraudsters and encourages them to attack more to this population more vulnerable. “

Asylum seekers referred to

The Newspaper reported yesterday that the fraudsters seek asylum applicants in a new scam of a magnitude rarely seen. They extort money by pretending to be an immigration tribunal, even going as far as to threaten expulsion.

Since 7 December, the immigration and refugee board of Canada (IRB) has received not less than 140 complaints from people saying to have been the target of an attempted extortion aimed particularly at asylum seekers.

In Québec, the Immigration minister, David Heurtel, said he is “concerned” by the report of the Newspaper and considers that, to combat these scammers, it is necessary to do the ” awareness raising “.

“You need to see how we can do outreach through organizations which are in charge of the integration, to develop the reflex of asylum seekers to ensure that checks are made before they give their money to anyone”,-he said.

Audits by Ottawa

“It is deplorable that people take advantage of other people who are in this situation [of asylum] “, was launched, for his part, minister of Transport, Marc Garneau yesterday.

He added that the federal government intends to make checks about this in the next few days.

– With the collaboration of Charles Lecavalier and Boris Proulx

Immigrants to Canada are increasingly victims of extortion

2017*

• 74 victims
• Losses: 255 921 $

2016

• 155 victims
• Losses: 550 244 $

2015

• 124 victims
• Losses: 464 043 $

2014

• 24 victims
• Losses: 41 218 $

Source : Canadian anti-fraud Centre

*The investigations of this year are still ongoing and the final data will be released in 2018