New Immigrants , New Homeowners and Senior citizens are favourite targets of Scam artists.

Lot of door to door, telemarketing, phone, internet, job, rental scams, MLM, Pyrammid type scams in Canada.

Right now I am in a hurry, but later on I will list them.

Other People please feel FREE to ad scams below. I will add mine to the first post later on

1-900 scam.
If you TV advt. advertizes you to call 1-900 number to learn the English language / accent from calling a 1-900 number, be careful. You may be charged some $ 5 per minute for these English lessons.

Free things scam :
Some will say that you won a Buffet / vacation / Ipod free but to claim it, you have to come to a resort with your spouse / live in partner. It is mostly to sell you a vacation package costing $ 1000 or a time share package. Avoid it.

Kijiji scam :
Kijiji will advertize things for very cheap. Beware, it may be stolen goods. There is chance that police can come and seize the goods. Esp. beware if our African brothers are trying to sell you stuff this way. As a disclaimer, I have bought many stuff this way. They will tell me to come to a Gas station and they will handover stuff , collect the money and go off.

Amway/ Primerica scam :
Sometimes, desi's will try to smile and do small talk at Tim Horton's walmart etc.. They will seem as if they are helping you but will try to make you a member. Run away.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

CRA Scam .. There's a whole thread on it where people pose as CRA and call unsuspecting new immigrants and ask them to share their personal info like SIN etc and transfer money to banks and account no.s threatening loss of residence etc.

Never share personal info like DoB , Ids etc and Always ask the caller to send a letter instead .

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Fido.

Fake jobs: Some offshore companies like in Russia, etc., offering you a job in Canada, all you have to do is collect payment from clients and send it to them. They will say they do not have agents in Canada and you will act as their agent. They send fake cheques to you and ask you send money via bank. By the time the fraud is detected, it is too late.

Primerica will collect your resume from job sites and call you for interview. It is up to you if you want to sell their products but they pretend as if they are offering you a job. This is a purely commission job with no fixed salary.

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Give free food http://www.thehungersite.com ||

Vounteer experience - Some companies take you in the guise of getting Canadian experience. Squeeze you for 3 months and then let you go (in order to be legally safe of not hiring you). They will just give you reference. Though this is legal, it is actually exploiting the poor immigrants

Consultants - Some consultants target rich immigrants who are looking for job by saying that they will give you training and reference. They will charge you $ 1000 for services that HDRSC / YMCA offers for free. They will make it look professional by saying that you can chat with them for tips and that they will give you insider information for jobs.

Prejudice and racism - Some companies know that immigrants can be exploited. So when you are hired, they will have 2 set of rules. One set of rules will be for the whites and the other for south asian immigrants. For whites, they will gibe overtime, let them off by 5 pm, give them references after they quuit. For South Asians, they will not give you overtime, ask you to stay back and when you resign, they will say nasty things and show you the door. This happens mainly in one man office and mom-and pop businesses.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

Thanks for the info, I just moved in about 6 months ago.