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Friday, September 05, 2008 |
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Friday, September 05, 2008 |
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Identity Theft & Fraud Protection Protect Your Identity Imagine this: Unexpectedly, you get turned down for a loan, you get a call from a collection agency about an account you never opened, or worse yet, a call from the police about a crime you didn't commit. Suddenly, you're a victim of identity theft.
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in North America. Between September 2001 and April 2002, there were over 3,880 reports of identity theft in Canada alone, with reported losses of over $4.6 million. It happens when someone steals your personal information - your social insurance number, driver's license number, health care number, credit card number, debit card, or your PIN number. Criminals get this information in a number of ways including stealing your cards, posing as an employer, bank or utility company employee, grabbing information off websites that are not secure, sorting through garbage, or using devious ways to find out your PIN number. It can happen to anyone. In the course of a busy day, people use an ABM to get money for groceries, charge tickets to a hockey game, mail their tax returns, call home on their cell phones or apply for a new credit card. We don't give these everyday transactions a second thought. But someone else does - someone who is interested in using these everyday transactions to steal your personal information and use it to commit fraud or theft. Once they have your card information and your PIN number, criminals can open a new credit card account or bank account in your name. And the worst thing is, you won't know about it until it's too late.
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Identity theft is a fast growing crime.