FRED: Welcome to the Scotiabank Podcasts. I’m Fred Ketchen, Director of Stock Trading for ScotiaMcLeod. These regular podcasts call on some of Scotiabank’s most knowledgeable experts to help you make the most of what you have. Here we’ll discuss strategies designed to put you in the financial driver’s seat.

In this podcast I’m joined by Steve Hawkins, Scotiabank’s Chief Information Security Officer. With March being fraud prevention month, Steve’s is going to talk with us about the importance of protecting yourself from identity theft.

Steve, let me begin by asking you what exactly is identity theft?

STEVE: Well Fred, it’s one of the fastest growing crimes in Canada. Identity theft or identity fraud is the taking of a victim’s identity to obtain credit, steal money from the victim’s existing bank accounts, using that information to apply for loans, rent an apartment or obtain a job using the victim’s name.

FRED: Well, how do criminals get my personal information?

STEVE: Well, there’s some low tech means and high tech means. It’s not just a high tech crime although there are internet methods. Most of the identity theft occurs using non-technical means. People steal wallets and purses, they intercept or re-route your mail, they rummage through your garbage or via the internet they send out fishing attacks to try and get you to give them your information, or they get you to install virus programs on your home computer to try and log your key strokes and steal your information that way.

FRED: Steve, how can Canadians protect themselves from identity theft?

STEVE: Well, the most important thing is to secure your personal records. You need to make sure when you’re throwing out your statements, your credit applications, credit offers, insurance forms, medical statements, charge receipts, checks and bank statements and cancelled or expired credit and ATM cards, that you shred these things before you throw them out. You have to keep your wallet and your purse in a safe place and keep it with you at all times. Make sure you don’t give out your social insurance number to anyone unless it’s absolutely required and be careful about who you provide personal information to over the telephone, through the mail or over the internet.

FRED: Are there some specific tips consumers can follow when using their debit or credit cards?

STEVE: Most definitely. One of the most important things to do is to keep your PIN secret when using your debit card. Your debit card in Canada won’t work without your PIN; and so when you’re keying in your PIN at a point of sale or ABM, it’s important to hide the key pad so that no one can observe you keying in your PIN. Because if they do happen to steal your card, they can’t actually use it without the PIN; and make sure that you don’t use easy-to-guess information like your birthday, or your telephone number, and don’t share your PIN with anyone, not even family members. Other things are with the credit card, make sure you only give out the card number and expiry date to merchants that you have called to buy something or where you have chosen to go to a website that you believe is legitimate to buy something. Be careful who you give that information to.

FRED: What about tips for on-line banking?

STEVE: Well, it’s important to avoid using personal data as your password. You should use hard-to-guess password combinations of letters and numbers for your on-line banking and never give it out, even to family. You need to avoid using a public computer when doing financial transactions. We’re talking about computers that are in cyber-cafes, hotels, libraries, these may not be secure devices. Always log out once you’ve completed your on-line banking session. And when you do your banking from your home personal computer, you need to make sure you keep it secure and up-to-date. So you need to turn on the automatic updates for the operating system patches, run anti-virus, anti-spam, and anti-spy ware software and have these set up for automatic updates. We also recommend running a fire wall to guard against unwanted access to your computer. The other thing that you need to do is make sure that you don’t click on links in e-mails directing you to your online banking site. The banks will never ask you for personal information or passwords via e-mail. So basically, use common sense and be aware of potential security leaks. You wouldn’t give information to just anyone in the real world, apply the same discretion while your online.

FRED: Steve, how do banks prevent identity theft in their online banking environments?

STEVE: Well, Canadian banks use a variety of sophisticated technologies and different layers of security procedures and processes to help protect the systems from intrusion and make sure that the accounts are protected from unauthorized transactions. All the banks run sophisticated fraud prevention and detection systems to monitor for anomalous activity and sometimes we, you know, detect problems and contact the customers quite proactively to indicate that there might be a problem…we’re trying to work with them on preventing fraud. We invest heavily in security systems and constantly explore new technology in an effort to ensure that the on-line banking services remain safe and secure. To verify identities, banks may ask additional security questions before providing online access to your accounts, particularly if they detect that you’re coming in from a computer that you don’t usually use for banking; and all banks have information on their websites to keep customers up-to-date on the latest scams and provide online safety tips.

FRED: Well, that’s all good advice and if I didn’t pay attention, what would I do if all of the sudden I became a victim?

STEVE: The most important thing is to call the bank to report it immediately. Most banks have a section on their website for their customers to report online fraud. They list a 1-800 number that you can contact their call centers so you can report it immediately 7-24.

FRED: Thanks, Steve for sharing this very important information with us. I’m sure that our listeners have found this helpful in protecting themselves from falling victim to identity theft.

Thank you for joining us. I’m Fred Ketchen. For more information on our Wealth Management Services, please visit your local Scotiabank branch. We’ll help you make the most of what you have.