{"id":68914,"date":"2023-01-23T14:18:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T21:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=68914"},"modified":"2023-02-12T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T23:53:11","slug":"international-student-urges-awareness-of-scams-targeting-newcomers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/01\/23\/international-student-urges-awareness-of-scams-targeting-newcomers\/","title":{"rendered":"International student urges awareness of scams targeting newcomers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scam Alert:<\/strong> Sehajdeep Sraa, an international student, browses the CRA website at his home in Calgary Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. Sraa now attends webinars to keep himself updated about new scams. (Photo by Namdeep Kaur\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A<\/span>n international student who lost nearly $3,000 to a phone scammer is calling for schools to use more effective methods to educate newcomers about common scams.<\/p>\n

Sehajdeep Sraa, a 22-year-old business student at Bow Valley College in Calgary, received a phone call on Nov. 30, 2022, about fraudulent activity on his social insurance number.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a panic situation for me, and I didn\u2019t know how to act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The caller identified himself as a legal officer from Service Canada and asked Sraa to act immediately to clear his name.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed real to me as they knew my name. I couldn\u2019t remember the guidelines that were provided by CRA a year back when I first arrived in Canada,\u201d said Sraa, who arrived in Calgary in 2021.<\/p>\n

Sraa transferred the money he was asked for and later discovered it was a scam. The amount was half of his second semester\u2019s tuition. He was too embarrassed to share it with someone or report it to the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already dealing with the problem of adjusting to a new place, but now I have another one. I don\u2019t know how to differentiate between what is real and what\u2019s fake,\u201d said Sraa.<\/p>\n

Sraa\u2019s situation is not uncommon. Statistics from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) suggest that fraudulent activity is increasing and is difficult to track.<\/p>\n

As of Dec. 31, 2022<\/a>, the centre received 90,137 fraud reports, and more than 56,000 victims lost $530 million to fraud. However, the CAFC estimates that only five per cent<\/a> of scams and frauds are reported.<\/p>\n

Scammers generally use phone calls, texts, and other means of communication to urge taxpayers to visit a fake web page, where they are then asked to enter personal information to verify their identity.<\/p>\n

But in a recent webinar<\/a>, the Canada Revenue Agency said, \u201cCRA will never ask you for your bank account number, credit card number, or passport number. These are scams, and you should never respond to these fraudulent communications or click on any of the links provided.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ravneet Mann, a senior teller at TD Bank, email has made it easy for criminals to reach more people. Even if few reply, they still make more money than robbing a store.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are victimized by such scams, inform your financial institution immediately so they could take action and minimize the loss,\u201d said Mann. \u201cAlso, you should inform the police. It will help them keep track of new types of scams and issue a community alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sraa, universities and institutions should take scam issues seriously and educate their students via emails and webinars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am new to the country, and I don\u2019t know how Canadian agencies work and contact residents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He believes it will be worth everyone\u2019s time as it will protect many students from losing their money and being traumatized for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

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A Bitter Lesson:<\/strong>\u00a0International student Sehajdeep Sraa goes for a walk in Calgary Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. Sraa studies business at Bow Valley College. (Photo by Namdeep Kaur\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An international student wants schools to use more effective methods to aware newcomers about the common scams. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":782,"featured_media":69330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Scam Alert NK","footnotes":""},"categories":[1109,1107],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"category-technology-and-gaming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68914"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69469,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68914\/revisions\/69469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}