Ellyse Swayze got the job — and it cost her $700.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The 39-year-old Edmonton woman was laid off from her job at a call centre in April 2021.
In October of that year, she found a job posting on Facebook Marketplace for a virtual personal assistant. Within about 24 hours, she had messaged the recruiter, gone through a virtual job interview on Telegram — a messaging app and social media platform — and was hired, starting the next morning.
Swayze’s first task at her new job was to draft emails to clients of the business that had hired her. Next, she deposited a $700 cheque to her bank account, to cover the purchase of seven $100 Amazon gift cards, intended as compensation for some clients.
Clerks at the drug store were apprehensive about selling her the gift cards because of the fraud risk. But Swayze, eager to make a good impression on her new employer, assured them it was OK.
She returned home with the cards, scratched them to reveal their confirmation codes, and sent photos of them to her employer. That meant her employers now had access to the cards.
“Sometimes I still shake my head at it. I wish I wasn’t so naive,” Swayze told CBC News. “But when you’re in a distressed situation like that, looking for work, I guess you just tend to not look at the broader side of things.”
Swayze was then directed to buy more gift cards, this time receiving a $1,000 cheque from the employer. Recognizing her bank might hold those funds, she visited a branch to withdraw the cash. But the teller spotted red flags and recommended that Swayze call her employer immediately.
Dread set in after she explained the situation to her boss, who suggested she try another bank, Swayze said.
When she learned the cheques she received were counterfeit, she filed a report to the Edmonton Police Service, as the bank teller suggested.
“I am grateful that it was only $700, but at the time, I didn’t have $700 to lose,” she said.
The money Albertans are losing to employment or job fraud schemes, which prey on people looking for work, is rising rapidly, despite a small increase in the number of reported victims, according to data obtained from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the national police agency that gathers information about fraud and identity theft.
Investment scams remain by far the highest-grossing scheme in Alberta, but job schemes climbed to No. 2 last year, data shows.
In 2024, fraudsters reportedly took roughly $4.8 million from about 190 victims in Alberta. The money lost is up more than tenfold from 2022, when $440,000 was taken from almost 160 people, data shows.
“Where there’s success, [fraudsters] are going to repeat. They’re going to come back,” said Det. Scott Abbott of the Edmonton Police Service financial crimes section.
Law enforcement officials told CBC News that job fraudsters took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many people to work remotely, and also from financial technology — namely cryptocurrency.
Their recent success also coincides with massive migration to Alberta, and higher unemployment with few job vacancies.
“Fraudsters do pay attention to circumstances and current events, so they will tailor approaches to reflect that,” said Cpl. Sean Milne of the Alberta RCMP financial crime team.
Alberta has experienced record population growth in each of the past two years. Roughly 4.9 million people lived in the province in 2024, an increase of almost 380,000 from 2022, Statistics Canada population estimates suggest.
Most of those newcomers came from other provinces — particularly B.C. and Ontario — and countries, StatsCan data shows.
Alberta’s annual unemployment rate rose to seven per cent last year, data shows, while the job vacancy rate, when adjusted for seasonality, dropped to 3.3 per cent in December 2024 — the latest month available.
“Fraudsters prey on vulnerabilities,” said Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre spokesperson Jeff Horncastle. “If job opportunities are hard to come by in a certain region, then there’s a chance that fraudsters are going to capitalize.”
Milne said that when the economy tightens, there tends to be a rise in job fraud as well as loan and grant scams, because fraudsters may catch more people who are trying to get income.
Abbott, the EPS detective, listed several tricks scammers use to attract and connect with people — some of which align with what happened to Swayze.
They often post an ad online promoting remote work and high wages, Abbott said. Then, they try to build a relationship with those who respond — sometimes interviewing them — and convince them to pay for things.
Job scammers have also shifted toward using cryptocurrency more often, instead of banks, because there is less regulation and fewer protections, Milne said.
“A lot of crypto exchanges that are used by the scammers are not based in Canada. So the amount of oversight — or even ability to contact those exchanges — is much more limited than if we’re dealing with a domestic financial institution and currency,” Milne said.
“It’s a much more useful medium for the scammers to operate in, and it allows them to function more effectively, unfortunately,” he said.
Fraudsters also recognize that many Canadians may not be well educated about financial technology, including cryptocurrency, and that victims may not realize they’re putting funds into a crypto wallet, Horncastle said.
Police believe the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre data likely doesn’t show the full scope of the issue, because only a fraction of victims report the crime.
“Losing a lot of money, of course, is traumatic for everybody,” Abbott said, adding that victims may also feel embarrassed.
“We like to think that, as individuals, we wouldn’t fall victim — ‘I’m smart enough.’ But that’s not the case; [fraudsters] are very good at their craft, although it’s illicit.”
Abbott and Milne encourage people who have been defrauded to report to police or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which partners with the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and Competition Bureau of Canada.
Milne also said anyone who thinks they’re encountering a scam — before they have been victimized — can call their local police service’s non-emergency line to ask for advice.
Swayze, who is now the bakery manager of Fuzion Donuts, a local chain in Edmonton, has not been able to get her $700 back — and she’s upset that people are trying to take advantage of people who are already in dire straits, she said.
Since her experience, she has grown more skeptical, doing more research about things she sees online. She urges others to do the same.
