With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), scams are getting harder to spot. Fraudsters now have easy access to tools that can create highly convincing fake documents, emails, and even phone calls. Their ultimate goal? To trick you into handing over your money or personal information. 

Because we support candidates and employers through the Canadian immigration process, we unfortunately see these attempts (and their increasing sophistication) frequently. So we want to equip you with some of the tools we use to spot these scams and stay safe. (We also previously published a blog on identifying bad actors that remains sadly relevant.)

How to spot a scam

One of the best tools we use to train TalentLift’s staff on how to identify “phishing” (fake messages designed to steal your information) is Google’s Phishing Quiz. You can take it for free here: https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com/.

The beauty of this quiz is that it simulates real-life fraud attempts by showing you fake messages that look like they came straight to your inbox, so you get practice on not only what to look for but also where to look. 

While we highly recommend taking the quiz yourself, we also want to highlight some of our most-used strategies to spot a scam: 

1. Look out for odd-looking website addresses 

Scammers can’t use legitimate websites to steal your information, so they build fake ones that look like the real deal. To trick you into a false sense of security, they use web addresses (domains) that look like they could be almost correct, but are nevertheless slightly off.

For example, a scammer trying to impersonate TalentLift Canada might hide a link behind a button that actually takes you to a fake address like talent-lift-canada-qehgch72.io. Once you click, the page might even look exactly like our actual website. 

It’s always important to double-check the web address at the top or bottom of your browser: if it looks strange, double check the email or message that brought you to the page is legitimate before providing any information. 

2. Be alert for strange email addresses 

Just like fake websites, scammers use fake email addresses to impersonate legitimate organizations. At a quick glance, the sender might seem real, but a closer inspection will reveal something isn’t right.

For example, a fraudster might try to impersonate our communications team. Because they don’t have access to our official domain (the part after the “@” symbol – talentlift.ca), they can’t send a message from [email protected]. Instead, they will create a lookalike address such as [email protected] and hope you don’t notice it’s actually from @gmail.com and not @talentlift.ca. 

So, it’s always important to check the sender’s actual email address and verify it matches the organization’s domain before concluding the email is legitimate. 

3. Identify uncharacteristic urgency

Fraudsters love to use a ticking clock to lower your defences. If an email, text message, or website demands that you act immediately without a good reason, it should raise a red flag.

For example, if someone claiming to be from a government agency asks you to provide a payment within the hour (when governments typically give a reasonable deadline to respond) take a step back. Scammers use panic to make you rush to ignore things like odd-looking links or malformed emails. Always pause and take a closer look at the website, email, or phone call to make sure it is a legitimate request. 

4. Check suspicious images through the AI tools themselves 

Fraudsters also love to use convincing images to add credibility to their story. AI technologies have made these images more convincing than ever. However, generative AI still frequently makes small mistakes. If you look closely at the image, you might notice strangely blurred text, a distorted logo on a supposed “official” job offer or government letterhead, or unnatural details in a photograph that indicate you should treat the message with caution. 

Many AI companies are now also embedding invisible digital watermarks (like SynthID from Google) into the AI-altered images. So you can upload it to AI tools (like Gemini or ChatGPT) and ask the generative AI to confirm your suspicions that an image is artificially generated. Try it with the image on the top of this page to see an example.

If the image has these issues, it is a good indication to ignore whatever requests are associated with it.

What to do if you suspect fraud

So, you’ve spotted a few red flags, but what if you aren’t 100% sure that it’s a fraudulent message? After all, sometimes even a legitimate message may look fraudulent because of a new email or software being used by the person trying to contact you.

Here’s what we tell our staff at TalentLift in these scenarios:

1. Verify independently

Never reply to an email or use the phone numbers provided in a message you are suspicious about. Instead, reach out to the organization or person trying to contact you directly using a different, trusted method of communication. For example, if you receive a questionable email claiming to be from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), you can use the official IRCC web form on the government website to confirm if the request is real before taking action. Or, call the person who is emailing you to confirm that the request is indeed legitimate. 

2.  Ask your support network

A second set of eyes is always valuable to check your intuition. If the person who tried to contact you isn’t immediately responsive, you can instead reach out to trusted people in your professional or personal network to get their opinion whether or not a message or request is legitimate.

What to do if you are a victim of fraud

If you are a victim of fraud, or if you spot an attempted scam, you should report it to trusted authorities. If the fraud is associated with a Canadian immigration matter or agency, you can file reports directly with the Canada Border Services Agency or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Finally, a note that at TalentLift, we work with Canadian employers who have a genuine interest in hiring talent from within displaced and refugee populations. We do not charge our candidates any fees, and we are a registered Civil Society Organization licensed to provide legal services through the Law Society of Ontario.

Candidates living in refugee circumstances and seeking a job in Canada can join TalentLift. Employers seeking global talent while engaging their team in something transformative can start hiring.