Awareness

In a world of scammers and fraudsters, keeping your identity and money safe and protected can sometimes be difficult.  It's hard sometimes to determine legitimate offers from fraudulent ones, and even the most careful individuals can sometimes be fooled.  Attached here is a FREE Awareness e-Book, containing tips on how to protect yourself.  Educate yourself and take the necessary steps to protect your money and your identity.

Scams

Every year, hundreds of Canadians fall victim to fraud.  Scammers target and exploit Canadians of all ages and all walks of life.  Attached is your guide to protection against fraud and scams.  The Little Black Book of Scams is a FREE publication of the Competition Bureau of Canada.  It contains a number of tips, and demystifies some common scams that you might not know about. 

Online fraud, email fraud and phishing

Your credit union will never email you a request for your personal passwords, personal information numbers or login information. Legitimate credit unions and other financial service institutions do not ask you to follow links to their secure websites in email communication with you. Emails designed to lure you to click through to a false, harmful site are a particular kind of fraud called phishing, and it can be a serious threat.

Don't be a victim!

If you are unsure of the authenticity of an email, delete it and call your branch to find out if an email was indeed distributed. Tip-offs include poor grammar or spelling, warning or alert messages, and exotic promises. Click here for some tips.

Identity Theft

Identity theft is a growing concern for Canadians. There are ways that you can be proactive in protecting yourself and your loved ones from this criminal activity. The Consumer Measures Committee (cmcweb.ca) has a public, government-sponsored site which has useful information on how to prevent identity theft and what to do if you become a victim of such a crime. Remember to be suspicious of anyone who contacts you by any means and requests personal information such as account numbers, credit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PIN) or passwords. Remember to protect these numbers and passwords when using them in public places.

To report an incident or suspected incident of fraud, your first line of contact should be your credit union at 1-877-377-3728.

Learn More

To take further action or learn more about different types of fraud and how you can protect yourself and your loved ones, please visit the following websites:

Phonebusters

PhoneBusters is a national anti-fraud call centre jointly operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is the central agency in Canada that collects information on telemarketing, advanced fee fraud letters (Nigerian letters) and identity theft complaints.

For examples of common types of scams, visit www.phonebusters.com or call toll free 1-888-495-8501.

Senior's Resource Centre

The Seniors' Resource Centre  is committed to raising awareness for the prevention of elder abuse. To report a known or suspected case of abuse against a vulnerable adult, call your local police detachment. For more information, visit http://www.seniorsresource.ca.