A woman from Ontario is looking for a part-time job and is devastated after losing thousands of dollars in an employment scam.

A woman from Toronto, who requested to be referred to as Imran by CTV News, said, "It's really tough right now, and I feel like I'm living a nightmare."

Imran stated that she was looking to earn some extra money and found a part-time job on social media that claimed she could make up to $400 an hour.

The supposed job involved working with software and improving applications, but Imran said she was asked to deposit some of her money first to prove she was a real person, not a robot.

Initially, she said she paid $700 to the company's platform and watched the amount grow to about $1,700. Imran said she could withdraw some money, so she thought it was a legitimate company.

But Imran said it became almost impossible to withdraw funds from the platform over time.

She added, "To withdraw the money, you have to put in more to finish a set of applications. And when I was done, I found out they were disabling withdrawals."

Over a few months, she was asked to deposit more money, and she did. Imran says she deposited $395,000 of her own money, believing her account had grown to over $605,000.

But in the end, she was unable to withdraw any of the money and lost a total of $395,000, adding that she borrowed $250,000 from family and friends.

Imran continued, "For someone to go through this, it's incredibly devastating. I never want this to happen to anyone else."

A Toronto student also contacted the channel and said he is involved in a similar job scam.

Danilo Picou said, "I’ll tell them that I need my money back. Why won’t you give me my money back?”

Picou explained that he also started depositing small amounts and could withdraw some of it, but after he deposited $1,700, his account was frozen, and he couldn’t withdraw the money.

Picou said, "This means a lot because this is the money I earned with difficulty, and it's the money I was saving to pay my tuition fees."

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 1,230 victims lost $4,948,849 due to job scams in 2022. So far in 2023, 592 victims have lost $2,712,390 due to employment scams.

The Canadian Centre for Anti-Fraud says that job scams have now become a growing problem.

Jeff Horncastle from the Canadian Centre said, "There is a new type of job scam that we have been monitoring; if they offer you a position very quickly and there was no interview, that should be a huge red flag."

Some other warning signs are if they ask for personal information and banking details upfront, advertise a basic job with a high salary, and request money upfront.

Another red flag is if all communications are done through chat applications without phone calls or in-person meetings.

Imran said she hoped to earn extra money but now has no idea how to get out of debt after losing $395,000 in the scam.

She confirmed, "It's incredibly devastating, and it feels like everything we had is gone now, and we are starting over."