You’ve just discovered someone stole your identity—is it too late? + MORE Feb 24th

According to the CAFC, these are some of the most common ways that criminals steal Canadians’ identities:

Taking personal or financial information from your recycling bin or mailbox

Obtaining your information through a spoofed website, which is a fraudulent website set up to look like a site from a trusted source, like a bank

Pretending to be a bank or government employee to “phish” for information by phone, email or text

By the time the victim realizes what’s happening, the fraudsters may have used the personal information to drain their bank accounts or take out a loan in the person’s name, for example.

Dealing with the aftermath of ID fraud can be time-consuming and stressful, from trying to recover lost funds to repairing a damaged credit score…

How safe is your email account from hackers? Many Canadians have a false sense of security around their email use. They may not have noticed anything amiss in their email account in a long time. But, unbeknownst to them, their email may have been exposed in a corporate data breach. Or their email address, possibly combined with other personal information, may be changing hands on the dark web for years before cyber-criminals attempt to enter their account.

Why do scammers hack email accounts?

Your email account is a treasure trove of personal and financial information. Once inside it, criminals can easily determine where you bank, what credit cards you hold, where you live and what kind of emails you typically receive. They might even be able to intercept multi-factor authentication (MFA or 2FA) messages.

Anyone in Canada can be a target—you don’t need a six-figure bank account to catch a scammer’s attention…

Unfortunately, identity theft is on the rise in Canada. In 2023, over 11,000 cases of ID fraud were reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC). Fraud crimes are vastly underreported, so the total is likely much higher.

Identity theft is no longer just someone combing through your paper mail for personal information. That still happens, but what’s more likely now is that your information is being stolen online through hacking or a phishing scam, where you are unknowingly giving a scammer personal information. Here’s what you need to know—plus how to prevent further ID theft.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft is when criminals steal your personal or financial information, like your social insurance number (SIN), credit card number or bank account information, and use it to open new credit cards, apply for government benefits, make purchases, or access your bank accounts and steal funds…

You’re not alone; it’s a common occurrence to realize, often long after it’s happened, that you’ve fallen victim to a scam or been a target of ID theft in Canada. And it’s not too late to do something about it—ID thieves will often wait months or even years after stealing personal and financial information before using it, to lull targets into a false sense of security.

What are the signs of identity theft?

Many Canadians only realize they’ve been a victim of identity theft weeks or months after it happened. Here are a few signs to be aware of:

Bills don’t arrive when they should. This could be a sign that someone has changed your mailing address and/or email address.

Your credit score has unexplained decreases, because thieves have opened new credit cards in your name without making any payments…