Mar 3, 2025
I received these tips in an email from RBC and they are a great reminder so thought I would share.
As fraud schemes grow more sophisticated, staying informed helps protect your personal and financial information. Many scams start with a phone call, email or text that appears to be from your bank, a well-known company or a new charity, claiming a security alert, missed delivery or urgent donation request.
These scams share a common tactic: a request for sensitive information, such as account numbers or passwords, through calls or links. To help protect yourself:
Use multi-factor authorization to access accounts
Adds an extra layer of security
Protect your PIN
Do not reveal your PIN to anyone, including employees of RBC, family members and friends.
Ensure each password is unique
Use a password manager to stay on top of passwords and keep personal accounts more secure. (I love Last Pass for this)
Be cautious of what you and your family share online
Scammers scrape social media looking for potential victims’ personal details; they use that information to trick the victims into engaging with them. This is known as social engineering and it’s a key tactic used to commit fraud.
Keep your computers, devices and networks up to date.
The most basic defense is to set your laptop, phone, tablet or software to automatically update and receive security patches.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security offers detailed tips on securing your devices. You may also wish to review RBC’s Cyber Security page.
Ignore calls, texts and emails that ask for credentials
Banks and government won’t ask for personal info via phone or email.
If you do get a call or an automated message from a person claiming to be a representative of a bank, a reputable business or the government, disconnect and call a phone number you have on file, on your credit card or from an official business website to verify whether they did, indeed, contact you.
Remember, do not click on links sent via text or email if you do not recognize the contact or the contact information looks questionable (e.g., an email address contains random letters and/or numbers or spelling mistakes).
If you have a useful resource, website, tip or app that I can share in a future newsletter, please send it along!
That’s a Wrap!