According to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, fraudsters have discovered many new ways to steal your money and information thanks to the increased popularity of social networking sites, unsecured public internet access points and online activities like shopping, buying and selling, dating and gaming. Online fraud is the latest way to scam people, but it is not the only approach that is used.
The FCAC says the best way to aviod becoming a vistim of fraud is to protect your personal and financial information at all times. Fraud can be committed by anyone- somone close to you, someone in your community, or a distant stranger.
Here are a number of tips to help you prevent fraud, recognize it, report it and stop it.
Preventing Fraud:
- Never provide your personal or financial information unless you trust the person you are communicating with. Some fraudsters pretend to be from reputable organizations in order to get the details they need.
- Keep your personal information in a secure place and dispose of it by shredding it.
- Never email your personal or financial information.
- Be very wary of clicking on links included in emails, because they may lead to fraudulent websites pretending to be legitimate. Instead, enter the website address of the organization you are looking for in the address bar of your browser yourself.
- Before entering any personal or financial information, look for websites with addresses starting with “https” or that have a padlock image in the address bar. This will indicate that the information entered on these pages is secure.
- Keep your computer antivirus, firewall and spyware software up to date.
- Regularly check your accounts and statements for any suspicious or incorrect activity and report it immediately to your financial institution.
If you become a victim:
- Don’t be embarrassed to report it. Fraud can happen to anyone.
- Start a written log: write down when you noticed the fraud and the actions you took, including names of people you spoke to and dates of communications.
- File a report with your local police.
- Contact your financial institutions and any other companies (for example, your phone company, cable provider, etc.) where your accounts were tampered with, or are at risk of being tampered with.
- Advise Canada’s two credit rating agencies, TransUnion and Equifax. Ask them to put a fraud alert on your file.
- Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre‘s national anti-fraud call centre at 1-888-495-8501 or by email at:info@antifraudcentre.ca.
For more information and tips on fraud preventio please visit TECUs website Alerts section!
