The College’s Fraud Prevention advertising is a core public protection measure and an essential part of maintaining trust in the immigration consulting profession.
Immigration fraud committed by UAPs is becoming more sophisticated, more organized, and more aggressive, particularly with the use of AI. Unauthorized Practitioners (UAPs) are exploiting vulnerable newcomers every day — often before those individuals ever have the chance to contact a College licensee.
Through multilingual, global outreach, the Fraud Prevention campaign provides people with practical tools to recognize scams, identify UAPs, verify College licensees and make informed decisions.
During our focus groups earlier this year, newcomers told us clearly, and in their own words, why fraud is so effective. Many are unfamiliar with Canada’s immigration system, which is rapidly evolving and can be complex. Others face language barriers, or do not know where to find trustworthy information. UAPs exploit confusion and uncertainty.
Our campaign helps close that information gap by meeting people where they are — online, in their own language and at the exact moment they are making high-risk decisions.
And the results demonstrate the need for this work.
Digital ads ran on Facebook, Instagram and Google Search in Canada, and 16 of the top-source countries for immigration to Canada. Ads were available in English, French, Hindi, Arabic, Simplified Chinese and Farsi.
This year, we expanded our presence on transit ads in Canadian cities from coast to coast. Generating more than 160 million impressions, we ran ads in Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Halifax and Saint John.
In total, the campaign earned more than 687 million global impressions across all channels and drove 1.7 million new users to the Public Register. The College also achieved 67,300 new social media followers, driven by more than 65,000 new Instagram followers.
Of our total impressions, 515.5 million were international; India was the most engaged market, followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh. The social media campaign particularly resonated with younger audiences, aged 25-34.
Our Google Search campaign was the most effective channel for reaching individuals who were actively researching immigration to Canada, earning a total of 1.3 million global impressions. Engagement was strongest internationally, especially in markets like Pakistan, Congo, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. Total international Google Search impressions were more than 902,000.