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Then last August, Molitor stumbled upon an Instagram account that used her name and her old office address and promoted a website that looked almost like hers. She clicked on the link that led her to an immigration company that showed her as the CEO, but with the photo of a white male. It also posted a fake licence certificate purported to be hers.

“These people are committing frauds in my name,” said Molitor. “I’m very fearful for the people that are contacting these scammers because I’ve had several victims or potential victims contact me to verify. They are getting a lot of attention, a lot of customers. According to Instagram, they’ve been active since December 2023.”

For a long time, the immigration consulting industry has been tackling the “ghost agents” who pretend to be accredited consultants. Canadian law only allows a consultant licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants and a lawyer by a law society to give immigration advice for a fee.

But with business increasingly conducted online, combating these frauds — many of them originating abroad — is getting even harder.

Someone looking for help in immigration may come across a fake website or post on social media, find a matching name on the directory of the regulator and fall into the trap.

While the professional reputation of the impersonated consultants is certainly at stake, victims of the scammers ultimately pay the price as their applications will likely never be filed, or they will be refused for not having all the required documents.

With efforts by government officials and regulatory bodies to educate the public to use authorized immigration professionals and check their members’ directory, Halifax-based immigration consultant Lucas Nonnemacher believes ghost agents are stealing the identities of licensed lawyers and consultants to make their operations look legit. 

“Sometimes I have WhatsApp messages from people sending (copies of) their passports, bank statements, birth certificates and marriage certificates without even saying hi,” said Nonnemacher, who has had his name, photo and credentials used by other immigration consulting websites to recruit clients.

“These scammers see the opportunity, that people are desperate to come to Canada.”

While rapid changes to the immigration rules and policies in the past year have added confusion to an already complex immigration system among prospective applicants, he said Ottawa’s recent reduced permanent and temporary resident levels plan increases their desperation.  

Molitor, who has been a licensed consultant since 2011, said she has reported the fraudulent website to its host, the police, the Canada Border Services Agency and her professional regulator. Yet, the fake website is still up and running.

In November, she sought help from a cybersecurity company.

An investigation by CyberAGroup found that the website was registered in Singapore or Malaysia and hosted on servers in Kenya, and traced the geolocation of the scammers to Nigeria.

It turned out that the white man in the photo that purported to be Molitor actually belonged to Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson, who is currently the federal minister of energy and natural resources. The investigation also discovered that the group was not only involved in the immigration business, but likely linked to some fake bank sites and crypto sites.

“The immigration (scam) issue is an interesting one in that they can redirect people and basically get these poor folks that are looking to immigrate to Canada to shell out thousands of dollars,” said CyberAGroup founder Ryan Zorn, a retired intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

“These folks maybe don’t have a command of the English language or internet savviness, and they’re abusing them. And so now it’s become a financial thing and it’s going to become more and more of that as we move forward. The scammers are seeing the financial benefit of hijacking these (legit) accounts.”

And like other internet frauds and online identity thefts, it’s almost impossible for Canadian authorities to pursue the perpetrators because most are located abroad and beyond Canadian authorities’ jurisdictions, so it’s “buyer beware,” he said.

“As soon as you start dealing with all these cross-border legal issues from countries that are much more permissive when it comes to these types of activities, most legal remedies are nonexistent,” said Zorn.

“The scammers know this. Even if the bad actors happen to be in Canada, the anonymity of the internet to conduct their activities makes it hard to identify and prosecute. So it’s a game of Whack-a-mole.”

Since its inception in 2021, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants said it has received 682 reports of “unauthorized practitioners.” Between March 2024 and January, the regulator has shut down more than 5,000 web pages and social media pages advertising these practitioners through a series of enforcement blitzes.

“Fraudulent use of licensee information is both illegal and unacceptable,” said Stefan Lach, a spokesperson for the college. “We are actively working to combat (unauthorized practitioners) through enforcement, licensing, and public awareness campaigns, in collaboration with our federal law enforcement partners.” 

Meanwhile, the concerns over their identities being stolen for frauds have prompted some licensed consultants to post a disclaimer page on their own websites about any affiliation with the individual agents or companies who have claimed to represent them. 

“This is the best I can do to protect myself and others,” said Gatineau-based consultant Steven Johnston, who has been in practice since 2009 and whose name has been used by unauthorized agents, including one in Tunisia.

“I find it sad that people are scammed using my credentials even though I’m not responsible. They are using my reputation and credibility as a licensed consultant to scam people out of hundreds and thousands of dollars. This isn’t good for my name.”