The Better Business Bureau is urging Canadians to be wary of employment scams.
“Be cautious if you are offered a job that includes excellent pay and work-from-home opportunities,” stated the BBB Canada Risk report, released Tuesday. “Research the company and visit the official website to find the job posting.”
The BBB developed a “risk index” to measure the riskiest scams in Canada, ranking employment scams at No. 2 with a risk index rating of 366.3.
The No .1 riskiest scam facing Canadians: investment/cryptocurrency scams, with a risk index of 796.6.
This index is calculated by combining exposure, susceptibility and monetary loss.
According to a BBB survey, 40.1 per cent of participants who reported employment scams said the option of remote work was their main attraction when interacting with the scammer. Results also showed the median reported loss for employment scams to be $2,500.
Employment scams were also the second-highest reported scam type at 16.7 per cent of all reports, according to the survey.
BBB spokeswoman Neesha Hothi said in a statement there were more than 100 employment scams reported to the company's scam tracker in B.C. during 2024.
The risk report survey was distributed to 3,300 respondents in Canada and the U.S. who first submitted a scam report to the BBB scam tracker. Out of all respondents in Canada, 36.2 per cent said their scam incidents involved social media. Facebook was the most common platform to interact with scammers at 57 per cent.
