Many consumers — and possibly some of your clients — are not doing enough to protect their personal information from fraud or identity theft, says Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s privacy commissioner.
“Identity theft is the fastest-growing form of consumer fraud in North America,” Cavoukian says. “And it can be perpetrated very easily.”
As we enter a new year, Cavoukian says, now is a good time to talk to your clients about the dos and don’t of online transactions to ensure their information is protected.
Cavoukian offers the following suggestions:
> Use a dedicated credit card
If your client makes many purchases online, suggest that they have a credit card dedicated solely for their online purchases.
Suggest starting with the lowest-possible credit limit, Cavoukian says. If that credit card is compromised, the damage will be minimal and easier to undo.
> Create a unique password
Many people who do a lot of their financial transactions online don’t pick secure passwords for the website on which they make purchases. The less a password resembles a real word, name or date, the more difficult it is to hack.
One suggestion is to pick a password that is the same word but in two languages. For example, “house” and the French translation, “maison.”
In addition, your client could choose to spell one of those words phonetically. For example, “housemaizon.” Or, he or she could add a number (or numbers) to further disguise the password.
Regardless of the combination, the password should still have meaning. Otherwise, the client is likely to forget it.
> Beware third-party apps
Many clients may be loading up their new smartphones and tablets with applications provided by third parties. Cavoukian suggests clients should exercise some caution when purchasing these apps.
Third-party app providers, she says, rarely have the level of privacy or data protection you would expect from other, trusted sources, such as a financial institution.
“It’s a question mark,” she says. “If you are going to be using personal information, you have no idea if or how [they] are going to share with another party that you haven’t consented to. That’s why I always tell people to be aware.”
Advise clients to check the privacy policy and terms of the provider before downloading an app.
> Read financial statements
As more clients receive bank statements electronically, they may not put as much scrutiny into checking them as they would a paper document.
One of the first things identity thieves do, Cavoukian says, is notify the victim’s financial institution in an effort to enter a change of address on the account. An antidote to this problem, she says, is to encourage your clients to pay attention to their billing cycles and be vigilant in reading their statements. Make sure they pay attention to the fine print.
> Urge clients to get a credit report
Many of the major credit bureaus and agencies now offer an annual update of a client’s credit report, free of charge.
This is an excellent way for clients to see whether their credit rating has been compromised by suspicious activity.
“The last thing you want compromised is someone’s credit worthiness,” says Cavoukian. “If it is a free service, why not take advantage?”