Apply for Canada Student Visa- Tips for Fraud Prevention
Every year, a lot of international students fall prey to fraudsters through email, calls, social media and websites. Such fraudsters give false promises to applicants like a guaranteed entry in a Canadian college or scholarships for studying and more in exchange for sharing your personal and financial information.
It is important for you to know that the Canadian Government offer scholarship programs and the entire application process for such programs are free of cost and are available online on Government websites. The Canadian authorities never ask anyone to make a payment or send money wires, etc. via any private money transfer firm.
Thus, it is important for you to be observant and stay well-informed about the scholarship programs that are available on the Canada's official website.
How to identify a fraud?
It is not an easy task to detect a fraud. However, you must stay away from consultants who:
- Asks you money for accessing or completing the application process
- Asks you to share your personal information, original documents or make payment via social media
- Gives you a guarantee about entering Canada, getting a job or admission or faster application processing in exchange of hefty amount of money
- Pressurizes you to speed up things and act immediately without providing you enough information
You should keep these things in mind and keep on updating yourself to identify similar frauds.
Protecting yourself from fraudsters
In order to protect yourself, you may take the precautions mentioned below:
- Ensure that any website you visit is 100% secure. If it is secure, it'll have https:// at the beginning of its URL along with a security lock or padlock icon on its login page.
- Never give away any financial or personal information via email, on social media, on phone call, or on any website until and unless you are sure about its legitimacy and security.
- Ensure that you apply all the privacy and safety filters beforehand and your system's virus, spyware or firewalls checkers are updated.
- In case you suspect any social media account or a website of possible fraud, you must search online to ensure whether anyone else have reported about it or not. During this process, please ensure that you use the exact website address.
- Never open any link of a website in your emails received from a stranger
Hiring a trustworthy Consultant
To keep yourself away from fraudsters, you may choose and hire an CICC registered consultant who can help you achieve your dream of studying in Canada.
In order to hire a consultant, you:
- Can ask your friends or family you can trust for recommending someone
- Can talk to a number of representatives before deciding upon which one you should hire, for this, you must check references, go through customer testimonials, etc.
- Must ensure that you properly understand that services they are offering and how much they'll cost
- Must get the written confirmation about services they are offering and the payment you have made
- Must ensure that they are authorized by the Canadian government
If you are interested in pursuing a long-term study program in Canada, then you must apply for a study permit in Canada. To know whether you need a study permit or not, you may take a free student assessment, today!