ID Theft Quiz: How Safe Are You?

Based upon figures published by the BBB (Better Business Bureau) there were 1.6 million victims of identity fraud in Canada in 2006, and the average amount of money stolen per incident amounts to $6,383.00. Not exactly an amount one can write off easily.

So just how should you guard your personal information? Are you at a high risk for ID theft based upon your living habits? What should you change to make your personal information secure?

The answer to all these questions is constantly evolving; Scammers are getting smarter by the day and their scams are getting more and more elaborate. The following 9 questions can help you assess your personal risk and will reveal some seemingly harmless actions that make you a bigger target to ID thieves. 

Quiz: How safe are you?

Question 1: Do you carry your SIN card in your wallet or purse?

Question 2: Do you have your SIN and/or driver's license number printed on your personal checks?

Question 3: Has it been more than two years since you have seen a copy of your credit reports?

Question 4: Do you throw away pre-approved offers of credit without shredding them?

Question 5: Do you put your outgoing mail in an unlocked box at work or home to be picked up?

Question 6: Do you file your monthly banking and credit reports without checking them for accuracy?

Question 7: Do you put banking or credit statements in the trash without shredding them?

Question 8: Is your personal computer operating without a firewall installed?

Question 9: Do you carry an insurance card that has your SIN on it, or that of your spouse?

The scorecard

If you answered YES to more than 3 questions, you are at an elevated risk for ID theft.

If you answered YES to more than 3 but less than 7 questions, you need to change your habits and check your credit history at the first convenient moment.

If you answered YES 8 or more times, run and get your credit report: It might already be too late!

Some of these questions pertain to actions that we just perform on auto-pilot. We throw away our mail without shredding it, simply trashing pre-approved credit card offers without ever opening them up. We don’t need any more credit cards so we just see the offers as junk mail, right? Almost all of us leave outgoing mail to be picked up by Canada Post in our letter box. We never bother to check our credit history unless we are about to close the deal on our house or refinance that mortgage, and even then it’s the broker that pulls our credit report—not us.

The idea is to be consistently careful. Remember, there were 1.6 million victims of identity fraud in 2006 and the average amount of money stolen per incident amounts to $6,383.00. Not exactly pocket change!

-Ali Jawaid