Post by kas on Oct 25, 2021 17:32:45 GMT -5
Have you ever had a phone call saying they can lower your interest rate? Have you ever fallen for this and gave your information and paid a one time fee for life long low interest rate? Not only were you scammed out of that one time fee and never had your interest rates lowered on any of your credit cards, but suddenly your credit rating went down? If so, you were a victim of Identity Theft.
What makes it worse is there is little you can do to protect yourself if you live in Canada. In the USA they have credit freezes but in Canada they do not. The only options are Equifax or Trans Union. Sadly that is a hit or miss as Banks will check only one or another (randomly) but not both.
The article here seems to think those are fine but it is not enough:
moneywizard.ca/blog/can-you-freeze-your-credit-records-in-canada/
It is better than nothing, but also watch this MarketWatch report which investigates and puts those to the test to see how dependable they are:
Identity Theft: How criminals use a low-interest credit card scam to steal from you
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-low-interest-credit-card-scam-identity-theft-1.4990040
If you're worried your identity has been compromised, cybersecurity expert Claudiu Pop recommends changing as many identity elements as possible: Credit cards, bank accounts, passwords, answers to security questions — even email addresses.
And signing up for credit monitoring and fraud alerts, while not perfect, is worth considering, he says.
"All we can do is have a plan — and have a plan for reacting as quickly as possible."
What makes it worse is there is little you can do to protect yourself if you live in Canada. In the USA they have credit freezes but in Canada they do not. The only options are Equifax or Trans Union. Sadly that is a hit or miss as Banks will check only one or another (randomly) but not both.
The article here seems to think those are fine but it is not enough:
moneywizard.ca/blog/can-you-freeze-your-credit-records-in-canada/
It is better than nothing, but also watch this MarketWatch report which investigates and puts those to the test to see how dependable they are:
Identity Theft: How criminals use a low-interest credit card scam to steal from you
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-low-interest-credit-card-scam-identity-theft-1.4990040
If you're worried your identity has been compromised, cybersecurity expert Claudiu Pop recommends changing as many identity elements as possible: Credit cards, bank accounts, passwords, answers to security questions — even email addresses.
And signing up for credit monitoring and fraud alerts, while not perfect, is worth considering, he says.
"All we can do is have a plan — and have a plan for reacting as quickly as possible."