Foreign nationals who wish to work, study, or live permanently in Canada should be aware of immigration fraud, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Many of these fraudsters posing as immigration consultants are surprisingly cover their scams and can take unfair advantage of many prospective immigrants. The Canadian immigration department warned in a tweet not to be a victim of immigration fraud and be very careful while working with consultants by asking them to provide a proper license.
You must always be aware and remember that IRCC will never:
contact you over the telephone to collect fees or fines
be aggressive or threaten to arrest or deport you
threaten to harm you or a member of your family, or damage your home or property
ask for personal information over the phone (except to verify information you already gave us)
ask for financial information over the phone
try to rush you into paying right away
ask you to pay fees using prepaid credit cards, Western Union, Money Gram, gift cards, or any other similar services, or
send police to arrest you for unpaid fees
However, if you get a suspicious immigration call, you should:
ask for the name of the person calling and then hang up
call our Call Centre to confirm that the call was real
if the call wasn’t real, report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
if you have lost money to a scam artist, report it to your local police