Tax Time Tips: Watching out for identity theft (Canada)
(NC)—Be aware that your personal data is far more vulnerable to theft during the race to get things done at tax time.
Common mistakes include disclosing your Social Insurance Number (SIN) in e-mails, postal communications, or in telephone conversations when getting help to fill out your tax forms, or RRSP applications. Innocent oversights such as these make life so much simpler for criminals to first steal, and then make use of your identity for personal gain.
Your name, date of birth, address, credit card, SIN number and other personal identification numbers can be used to open credit card and bank accounts, redirect mail, establish cellular phone service, rent vehicles, equipment, or accommodation, and even secure employment. When your identity is stolen, it is you that will be stuck with the bills, charges, bad cheques, and taxes.
Before this happens, be pro-active and minimize your risk. Take a look, for example, at these recommended websites, to lead the way. At SafeCanada.ca, a whole set of guidelines, tips, prevention and recourse procedures are posted to help prevent identity theft and also, to help you repair the damage. And, at the Canadian Consumer Information Gateway at consumerinformation.ca, you are invited to use the identity theft “tool kit”, a step-by-step service to help you spot the first signs of a problem, and as importantly, what you should do about it.
Take Action
A sampling of the immediate steps is:
• Contact each financial institution, credit card issuer, etc., and report what happened. Ask for fraudulent accounts to be closed, and for the cancellation and the reissue of any cards that were affected. Also find out if the additional information is required, like an official, Identity Theft Statement.
• Contact each of Canada’s national credit reporting agencies (details on the websites) and ask if a fraud alert should be placed on your file. The credit report may reveal further incidences of debt in your name.
• Report the incident to your local police department.
• Report the incident to PhoneBusters National Call Centre. This organization has a mandate to gather information and intelligence about identity theft, and provides assistance to victims.
• If your government-issued documents were stolen, report them to the responsible ministry or department and order new documents.
Identity theft information and details, plus other topics of interest, can also be found on the primary Government of Canada website at canada.gc.ca.
- News Canada