Fraud Prevention Tip

Just last month the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) issued a warning to the public that fraudsters have been phoning households pretending to be a CBA representative and requesting personal banking and credit card information. The reality is that the Association does not offer financial products or services, does not have any information about bank customers and would never make phone calls or send e-mails asking for personal or financial information.

Criminals are always looking for new ways to scam individuals into providing their personal and financial information and this version of a typical phone scam is no exception. In the past, criminals have also posed as officials from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requesting personal information in order to issue a tax refund and fraudsters have also posed as credit card fraud security staff who are following up on unusual purchases.

How do I protect myself?

The good news is that there is one fail-safe way to determine if a call is a scam; be wary and cautious. As in the case of the CBA scam, no legitimate caller from an organization, agency, bank or credit card company would ever ask you for sensitive personal or financial information including account numbers, passwords, or credit card numbers over the phone. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Be wary about answering verification questions over the phone from a suspicious caller. Your bank may ask you verification questions to ensure that the bank is speaking to the account holder. However, your bank will never ask you to provide your Personal Identification Number (PIN), banking passwords or account numbers.
Be cautious about sharing your personal and financial information over the phone. If you receive a call from someone who claims to work for the CBA or your bank, and you become uncomfortable or suspicious at all, hang up and contact your bank using the phone number provided on your financial statement, on the back of your debit or credit card or by looking up their published number.

What if I have already provided my financial or personal information?

If you think you may have provided personal banking or financial information to a criminal, you should contact your bank to report the matter as soon as possible and also contact your local police. Once reported, your bank can take steps to protect you and your account from fraudulent activity.

More information

The CBA recently issued a warning about a fraudster posing as an Association employee. You can find more details about the scam here.

The Canada Revenue Agency has a page about frauds and scams which can be found on their website here.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada also recently sent out a consumer warning regarding criminals who are requesting credit card security codes over the phone. You can find that warning here.

For more fraud prevention tips from the Canadian Bankers Association or to sign up to receive new tips by e-mail please visit the Fraud and Security section of the Canadian Bankers Association website.