A Facebook post to a BC driving group revealed a company that allegedly appears to be selling fake Canadian driver’s licences to customers who need them.
A page called Canadian License, belonging to the company behind these licences, lists North Vancouver as its base of operations. While the company is based in BC, it appears to provide licences for all provinces.
Some folks are outraged by the existence of the company.
A Facebook user who posted a message exchange with the company in a post to a driving group reveals a little more about the licence provider.
According to their Facebook page, it’s not just fake Canadian licences; they also allegedly offer permanent resident cards and visas. Another company we found even appears to be selling fake passports.
Daily Hive has heard about these types of schemes from the RCMP and ICBC, BC’s insurance provider. RCMP told Daily Hive that, in the absence of criminal charges, it couldn’t confirm whether investigations were ongoing into businesses like the one in question.
“What I can tell you is that we encourage anyone who has information about illegal activity to report it to their local police so that it can be investigated,” it added.
Meanwhile, ICBC told Daily Hive that it knows service providers like this one.
The fake licence company’s Facebook page has a link to a Telegram channel, and the Telegram invite states that it is “legally registered” with SAAQ, ICBC, Service Ontario, etc.
Based on what ICBC told us, that doesn’t sound exactly accurate.
Telegram
“We are aware of pages like the Canadian License one that’s been brought to your attention. Unfortunately, these kinds of pages have been popping up on various social media platforms lately, and they are a scam,” an ICBC spokesperson told Daily Hive.
“ICBC takes these fraudulent pages seriously. Once we become aware of them, our information risk management team works to get them off social media as soon as possible by issuing takedown requests.”
ICBC adds that if you spot a page like this on social media, report it on its listed platform and call your local police detachment.
The Facebook user who alerted the driving group to this scam said, “I can’t believe places like this have the gall to advertise!”
Others responded just as incredulously.
“I knew this was a thing because of the amount of dumb people on the road,” one Facebook user said.
Another user said they’ve known of other pages like this.
“There are many pages like this selling work visas for Canada and student visas. They will write fraudulent letters and fake references.”
If you search “Canadian licence” on Facebook, there are a plethora of other services just like this one. Long story short, if you encounter this type of service, you should inform your local authorities.
We’ve attempted to make contact with this specific Canadian License company but have yet to hear back.