Nayarit officials say about 160 people were drawn into a false job offer in Canada that promised legal construction work in Vancouver. The warning describes fake social media profiles, meetings staged near government buildings, and payments requested before any job was verified. The case now sits with prosecutors, but the public accounts differ on how much money was taken. What is clear is that the official route for foreign employment does not require workers to make private deposits.
Nayarit Warns Workers Over Fake Canada Job Scam Offers
Tepic, Nayarit. Nayarit’s labor secretary says about 160 people were defrauded through fake offers of legal construction jobs in Vancouver, Canada. The recruiters used social media profiles that appeared to borrow the authority of the state labor office.
Rubicela Nava Núñez, head of the Nayarit Labor and Justice Secretariat, said the victims were promised a route into Canada through construction work. They later learned the offer was false. The case has been sent to the Nayarit Attorney General’s Office. Cyber police work is expected to focus on the bank accounts and phone numbers used to contact the applicants.
“All services offered by the Labor Secretariat and the National Employment Service are free,” Nava said.
False construction jobs in Vancouver
The alleged scheme used a familiar pressure point. It offered legal work abroad, attached the offer to an official-sounding process, then asked for money before the job existed in any verified form.
Nava said the recruiters used false profiles on social networks. Some allegedly posed as people connected to the labor agency. Applicants were told to go near government buildings, according to the public warning about the scheme. Once there, they were contacted by phone and steered away from the offices to nearby public spaces.
That detail gave the fraud the look of a government contact. It did not put the victims in front of real public employees. It also made the pitch feel local, even though the promised job was in Canada.
The payment figures remain uneven in the public record. One account of Nava’s remarks said victims were asked for 10,000 pesos first and later 2,150 pesos. That money was allegedly tied to air travel and documents. Another public account of her statement said affected workers made an initial 12,500-peso payment. It also said recruiters sought up to four payments of 12,500 pesos. No formal filing reviewed for this article established one final loss figure.
A warning that fits a wider pattern
The case lies near Bahía de Banderas and Puerto Vallarta. Local officials have already placed online recruitment and migrant job scams inside a broader anti-trafficking risk map ahead of the 2026 World Cup. The Nayarit warning gives that risk a current local example, with alleged victims already reporting losses.
The pattern also fits a wider run of fraud cases. Many begin with a service that sounds established, documented, or officially connected. In a recent León travel-agency case, prosecutors described 209 complainants and more than 15 million pesos in alleged losses after paid trips were not honored.
Foreign job scams work because they sell certainty. They promise a legal route, a salary, documents, travel, and a person who can move the file faster. The official route is slower and less convenient. It is also the only route that gives a worker something to verify before handing over money.
How official Canada job offers should be checked
Canada’s federal guidance for Mexico says job scams to work in Canada are increasing. It tells applicants to verify an offer before paying an alleged recruiter. Warning signs include requests for deposits to personal accounts, guaranteed visas, claims of contacts inside the Embassy, and salaries that appear too high to be real.
The same Canadian guidance says Mexico’s Labor and Social Welfare Secretariat handles information for the seasonal agricultural worker program. It says there is no authorized intermediary who charges for participation. Applicants are told to go directly to the National Employment Service, where the service is free.
Canadian immigration guidance also says employers must not charge recruitment fees to a foreign worker. Employers must ensure that anyone acting on their behalf does not charge those fees. Separate federal rules for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program say employers and third-party representatives cannot recover recruitment fees from workers.
Mexico’s employment portal directs people seeking work abroad through the National Employment Service’s foreign employment section. It lists 079 as the contact phone number. Nayarit’s labor secretariat lists the state labor office and SNE Nayarit as the local points of contact for employment services.
The Nayarit case is now in the hands of prosecutors. What remains unclear is whether investigators can trace the deposits, identify the people behind the profiles, and recover money for the workers who thought they were paying for a legal job.
