Canadians lose $1M to fraud, continue taking risks

More than one million Canadians have lost money in an investment scheme, still many Canadians are making easily-avoidable mistakes leaving their personal financial information up for grabs by fraudsters, separate studies show.

A whopping 82% of adults are concerned about fraud in today’s online, convenience-oriented business world, according to the TD Canada Trust Fraud Prevention Month Poll.

There is at least some cause for this concern. New data from the Canadian Securities Administrators shows more than one million Canadians have lost hard-earned dollars to white-collar criminals.

And a recent poll by Visa found older Canadians are among the most vulnerable, with 16% of baby boomers and seniors citing they have already been victimized by payment card fraud, identity theft or a violation of financial privacy since turning 50-years-old.

Roughly 40% of older Canadians admit to participating in unsafe behaviours that put their personal financial information at risk, Visa found.

"While they are clearly concerned about identity theft, and 65% feel as though the problem of card fraud may be getting worse, the survey results tell us that older Canadians are needlessly putting themselves at risk to fraud," said Gord Jamieson, head of payment system risk at Visa Canada.

The goods news is approximately 90% of us are taking preventive steps to avoid becoming a victim of fraud, including shredding documents, shielding their Personal Identification Number (PIN) at cashier counters and changing their PIN every couple of months, TD found.

Still, it’s not just older adults making decisions that jeopardize their financial privacy. Even the most knowledgeable and technologically savvy Canadians slip up when it comes to basic fraud-prevention techniques.

The bank found 21% of respondents have sent their credit card number in emails, another 10% have told someone their debit card PIN and 7% have carried their PIN in their wallet.

And while almost four in 10 Canadians have been approached with an investment fraud, most of them multiple times, only 26% of people who believe it’s important to alert the authorities have actually taken that step, the CSA found.

"We are encouraged to see that the majority of Canadians are knowledgeable about what they should do when it comes to investing and investment fraud," Jean St-Gelais, chair of the CSA, said in a statement Monday.

"Unfortunately, many do not act on this knowledge, or their actions contradict their knowledge of investing and fraud prevention.”