EP023 How to Protect Yourself from Fraud

Every March, the Canadian government holds Fraud Prevention Month. It is a public awareness campaign that educates people about fraud and encourages them to recognize, reject and report it. The Competition Bureau works with other organizations such as the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in fighting against deceit, whether online or offline.

In this episode, I’m sharing some signs of frauds and scams and some ways fraudsters can trick you. I’m also sharing some reminders on how to protect yourself and the information on your computer and mobile phone as well as other ways to protect yourself from fraudster deception.

 

“With fraud, it is important to recognize, reject, and report it.” – Competition Bureau

 

This Week on Young Money:

• What the Competition Bureau does
• How much Canadians lost to fraudsters between January 2014 and December 2017
• Why the number of frauds reported is low because of the attached stigma
• What happens when frauds don’t get reported
• What the phishing scam is
• Why the emergency scam tricks Canadians
• Example of a wire or supplier fraud
• How to identify an extortion scam
• Other types of scams
• Reminders regarding your personal identification number (PIN)
• Where to report cases of fraud

 

Key Takeaways:

• A bank or financial institution will never send you an email or call you asking you to disclose personal information.
• Never send your financial information online.
• Don’t click links or open attachments that are in unsolicited emails. Install anti-spam, anti-spyware, and antivirus on your computer.
• Don’t keep passwords on your phone.
• Remember: if it is too good to be true, it probably is.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Fraud Facts from the Competition Bureau
• Little Black Book of Scams 2nd Edition from the Competition Bureau
• Fraud Quiz from the Competition Bureau
• Fraud Prevention Tips from the Canadian Bankers Association
• Bank of Canada Counterfeit Money Prevention
• Fraud Prevention & Tools from Visa Canada
• Fraud Prevention from Ebay.ca

 

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