We have been advised by the Student Services & International Relations department of an active, sophisticated scam campaign targeting international students. There have been a number of scam calls from individuals claiming to be employees of York University, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Recently, a number of international students have reported receiving phone calls regarding various issues such as a missing an immigration form when they arrived in Canada and fraud. The caller threatened to deport the student if no immediate action is taken i.e. paying a fine in the form of a gift card or a voucher. The scammers use Caller ID Spoofing to disguise their phone numbers with legitimate numbers for government agencies as well as York University.
It’s important to know when it is and is not a legitimate communication from a government agency or York University. Government agencies and York University will never:
- Contact you by phone to collect fees or fines;
- Be aggressive or threaten to arrest or deport you;
- Threaten to harm you or your family member;
- Ask for personal information over the phone;
- Ask for financial information over the phone;
- Try to rush you into paying right away;
- Ask for payment in credit cards, Western Union, Money Gram, gift cards, vouchers, or Bitcoins.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
- Never provide your personal information to strangers over the phone;
- Ask for the name of the person calling and then hang up;
- Call the government agency or York University to confirm that the call was real;
- Report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre;
- Report it to your local police.
Please contact York University whenever you are not sure:
York International General Inquiries
