Scam hijacks Calgary store's identity to dupe job seekers

In late November, Sue Ghebari, the owner of 17th Ave Thrift in southwest Calgary, says she started receiving phone calls from prospective employees.

She says she received about eight calls over 10 days from people in Ontario and on the East Coast inquiring about the remote, administrative job advertised on Facebook. 

The problem is, she says, she wasn't hiring.

"It was a bit of a shock ... you kind of feel a little bit helpless," she said.

As Ghebari later found out, someone had used her shop name, street address and store phone number to create a fake job advertisement on Facebook.

The one difference — a new email address for job seekers to contact. 

At least one Ontario woman says she lost $900 after corresponding with the fraudster behind the post, who convinced her to buy and transfer information on several prepaid gift cards. 

"For someone to just come along and hijack everything that you've worked for and use it in that manner, it's kind of, well, it's frustrating," Ghebari said.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) has received 1,644 complaints for job scams already in the first eight months this year, as well as 3,873 in 2021 and 4,429 in 2020.

In many cases, fraudsters will use information from a legitimate business, says Jeff Horncastle, communications and client outreach officer.

"The victim goes to check if this company really exists, sometimes they land on the legitimate company's web page and then they fall into the scam," he said.

Ghebari says she reported the incident to the Calgary Police Service, but Const. Pierre Poitras with its crime prevention team says in these situations, there's not much they can do. 

The IP address might be fake, some jurisdictions may not be willing to help with an investigation, he says, or any money exchanged may have gone through multiple accounts.

He says crime prevention needs to start with awareness.

"If you get scammed, tell somebody, don't be afraid to talk about it." 

But with scammers becoming increasingly more sophisticated, he admits it's hard to identify all of their tricks.

'You just feel so defeated'

Kristen Kelley says she wants to share her story so others don't fall prey to the same tactics used on her.

Kelley, from southern Ontario, saw the 17th Ave Thrift job advertised in her local Facebook group on Nov. 19, posted by someone she recognized within her community — who she later discovered had been hacked, she says.

"I was basically looking for extra part-time work just especially around the holidays and how expensive everything is," she said.

"When you get excited about something ... it takes over you, and you end up where I am, unfortunately."

On her first — and only — day, Kelley says her purported "employer" had her contact several clients through email. All of them sent her messages back, she said.

Then, she says the scammer sent her cheques for her to use to cover the cost of holiday gift cards for those clients. She did as instructed, sending the card information to each email. They all responded, again, thanking her, she said. 

The next day, she noticed some things were off. She rechecked the company website, scrutinized the cheques and noticed some disparities in her offer letter.

In retrospect, Kelley says she missed some red flags, and she's urging others to take their time researching these posts. 

"Make the phone calls. Do your own investigation," she said. "You just feel so defeated."

Tammy Farah, another woman in Ontario, says she saw an ad for the 17th Ave Thrift job in a local Facebook group in late November. She said because it was in a community group, and posted by a real-looking person, the ad seemed more convincing.

She started the interview process, which happened over text, but said she started feeling suspicious. She called 17th Ave Thrift, and Ghebari told her it was a scam.

Fraudulent cheques

According to the CAFC, Canadians lost nearly $9.5 million to job scams last year and another $4.6 million in the first eight months of 2022.

Fraudulent cheques are used to mislead about one-third of the people involved in job scams, according to a recent report.

Kelley says the solution could involve banks clearing each cheque before funds are deposited.

She's still out $900, she says, because her bank, Simplii Financial — a subsidiary of CIBC — reversed the amount credited to her account after finding the cheques were fake days later. Other big banks have similar policies on fraudulent deposits.

Josh Burleton, a spokesperson with Simplii, said in a statement they have "layers of security and monitoring in place," and they have refunded any account fees incurred by their client.

'Nothing is safe anymore'

As scammers continue to develop more ways to fool people, Julie Matthews, a senior investigator with Service Alberta's consumer investigations unit, says everyone needs to be more careful.

"The individuals you actually talk to are very clever, very good at what they do," she said in an interview with Alberta at Noon. "Nothing is safe anymore."

Even innocent looking posts, such as something about a missing pet on Facebook, can be deceptive, she said. Scammers will use those posts to get easy shares,  she says, and then edit them to become a job posting or to promote a service later. 

LISTEN | Albertans share their stories of how scammers fooled them:

In Calgary, Ghebari says she's disheartened to know her business was looped into a scam. 

"I just really hope that not too many people fell for it."