Record Losses Amid High Unemployment, Debt Burden and Virtual Asset Fraud
Survey results show that Canadian youth are emerging as the primary targets of investment scams. According to a Bloomberg News report citing the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) on the 17th (local time), the proportion of Canadians aged 18-24 who reported losing money to investment scams last year reached a record high, with the level of damage surpassing that of senior citizens for the first time. Excluding the period of the COVID-19, coronavirus disease, the youth employment rate fell to its lowest level in 27 years, while the burden of debt rapidly increased, sharply expanding the vulnerability of the younger generation.
Nicole Amaral, 24, a nurse living in Kelowna, British Columbia, exemplifies this trend. While preparing for her certification exam and working part-time, she was introduced to an investment company through a family acquaintance who claimed, “Investments doubled in just a few months.” An employee from the company later contacted her via the social media platform WhatsApp, instructing her to purchase approximately 10,000 Canadian dollars worth of Bitcoin and transfer it to a platform. Although Amaral confirmed a screen displaying her investment history, she repeatedly faced unexplained blocks while attempting to withdraw funds, eventually realizing she had been scammed. Canadian authorities identified the company as a fraudulent organization and blocked access to its related websites.
Experts analyzed that youth unemployment and economic pressures have increased exposure to scams. Richard Powers, a professor at the University of Toronto’s business school, explained, “Young people struggle to secure jobs and face mounting utility and living costs, leading them to overlook warning signs.” Indeed, Canada’s youth unemployment rate stood at 14.7% as of September, the highest level since 2010, excluding the COVID-19 period. The employment environment worsened due to overlapping factors: economic slowdown, U.S.-Canada trade conflicts, and intensified competition in the entry-level job market driven by large-scale immigration inflows.
Financial stability has also deteriorated significantly. According to credit rating agency Equifax, the credit card delinquency rate among those aged 18-24 was the highest across all age groups in Canada and has worsened since 2020. With surging living costs, high-return investment proposals have become increasingly appealing to young people.
Most scams involved initial demands for virtual asset purchases. Virtual assets are favored by fraudulent organizations due to their ease of cross-border movement and difficulty in tracking. A source from the Canadian Securities Administrators stated, “Many organizations operate as international criminal networks, making tracking and prosecution challenging.” Recently, technology-based methods such as deepfakes, manipulated platforms, and fabricated press releases have spread, significantly increasing the sophistication of scams.
The high SNS usage rate and interest in virtual assets among young people were also cited as reasons for the rise in victims. Jeff Honchak, a spokesperson for the Canadian Fraud Prevention Center, explained, “Younger generations use riskier platforms compared to other age groups, and peer examples of earning money through Bitcoin effectively facilitate scam access.”
