TheAubrey MasangoShow

Licensed Canadian immigration consultant Nicholas Avramis says a surge in Canadian immigration scam is because of a huge demand for people to immigrate to Canada.

Avramis says the Canadian government announced in 2018 that it would welcome more than one million new immigrants.

He says unfortunately fraudsters take parts of the truth and manipulate them.

Canadian immigration scams are a global problem and have now reached the shores of South Africa.

— Nicholas Avramis, Immigration consultant

The latest scam started about two months ago in Kenya and Nigeria, where fake news stories were created that the Canadian prime minister was begging the Kenyan and Nigerian prime ministers for one million new Kenyans and Nigerians.

— Nicholas Avramis, Immigration consultant

These stories start to get spread on WhatsApp and people start parting with their money and paying what we call ghost agents to get them job offers and fake visas.

— Nicholas Avramis, Immigration consultant

Avramis says he has started to get phone calls from South Africans who have been victims of the scam.

He says to identify a legitimate immigration agency, it must be licensed by the Canadian government.

The first question you have to ask the consultant is: "Let me see your licence," and then you can go on the government of Canada website and verify that the person is authentic.

— Nicholas Avramis, Immigration consultant

Click on the link below to hear more from Avramis...