March 2011

Fraud Prevention Month – How to Protect Yourself Online

March is Fraud Prevention Month, an important time to remind everyone about the efforts that banks take to protect you from fraud and the simple but important steps that you can also take to protect yourself.

This year, the theme for Fraud Prevention Month is online safety. Banks have sophisticated security systems in place to protect your personal and financial information and provide you with a safe online environment. Criminals know these strong protections are very difficult to overcome, so they try to get your confidential information directly from you and your computer. To avoid becoming a victim, it is important to understand what kinds of scams are out there and how you can protect your computers and your personal information.

Unfortunately, criminals also use the Internet to try to gain access to personal information, such as passwords, personal banking and credit card details and social insurance numbers. Once the criminals have obtained this information, it can be used or sold to others to make fraudulent transactions.

And it’s not just about getting access to your bank accounts. Stealing your social insurance number or driver’s license number can allow a fraudster to assume your identity and use that for their financial advantage by taking out a loan or mortgage or buying expensive items in your name.

How do these criminals get at your information?

Criminals will try a few different ways to steal information. Here are a few of the more common ones:

• Trying to trick you into downloading software that can monitor what you do and where you go online. This software can also steal your log-in user names, passwords and personal and financial information.
• Sending e-mails and using Internet pop-ups that seem legitimate, but take you to a phony website to try to get you to reveal your personal information.
• Contacting you by phone or leaving voice messages directing you to contact a phony call centre that attempts to trick you into divulging personal information.
• Reaching a large number of people by directing scams at users of popular websites. The scams are often designed to fit in with the theme of the website: like targeting popular social networking sites where friends and family share information.

Top ten tips to keep you safe online

1. Protect your passwords and change them regularly.
2. Install anti-virus, anti-spyware and Internet firewall tools purchased from trusted retailers or suppliers.
3. Be wary of downloading free files, programs, software or screensavers and avoid unsolicited or provocative messages (e-mail, Internet pop-ups or phone messages).
4. Never send personal and/or financial information by e-mail.
5. Ensure that you are in a secure environment when doing financial transactions online – look for the closed-lock or unbroken-key icons on your browser when entering credit card or other sensitive data.
6. Protect your Internet connection – this is especially important if you are directly connected to the Internet for an extended period of time through a cable modem or digital subscriber line (DSL). Disconnect from the Internet when you’re finished.
7. Verify your Internet connection – double-click on the closed-lock or unbroken key icon and read the certificate details to ensure it is registered to your financial institution.
8. Clear your cache – when you visit websites, the website addresses are stored in the cache, or memory, of your computer. Make sure you clear the cache of your browser after visiting secure sites so that nobody else can view any confidential information you may have transmitted.
9. Be cautious when using free wireless Internet connections in public places. While many are legitimate free WiFi networks made available by airports, resorts and coffee shops, some may be set up by criminals and using them could allow the fraudsters to access your personal information. Always check with the staff first to make sure you are connecting to their wireless network.
10. Check your financial and credit card statements regularly.

Take the quiz

To test your knowledge of online threats and best-practices for protecting your personal information, take the CBA’s Cyber Security Quiz.

More about Fraud Prevention Month

Fraud Prevention Month is an initiative of the Fraud Prevention Forum, a concerned group of more than 100 private sector firms, consumer and volunteer groups, government agencies and law enforcement organizations. The Canadian Bankers Association and many banks are members of the Forum. Through its partners, the Forum works to help Canadians recognize fraud and avoid becoming a victim.

As a member of the Fraud Prevention Forum, the Canadian Bankers Association has devoted a special section of its website to Fraud Prevention Month. The section offers tips on staying safe online, protecting yourself from identity theft, how to recognize a WiFi hotspot scam and how to avoid being victimized by e-mail fraud or phishing. There are also interactive quizzes where you can test your awareness of the scams that criminals try to commit.

Do you have an idea for a future fraud prevention tip? Send us an e-mail with your idea to FraudPreventionTips@cba.ca.

Thank you for subscribing to the Canadian Bankers Association’s Fraud Prevention Tip.

Canada’s banks take the issue of privacy, security and fraud prevention very seriously. They work hard to prevent their operations and customers from being used for any kind of financial crime and to raise awareness about the ways that customers can protect themselves.

As a consumer, you also have an important role to play in preventing fraud. March is Fraud Prevention Month and this year’s theme is staying safe online.