Young Canadians are increasingly the targets of financial fraud, experts say, as the age group most comfortable with buying products online is likewise most exposed to risk.
However, it took nearly two months before Shimizu, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, learned their credit information had been part of the leak. By that point, someone had already made purchases with Shimizu’s card. The first purchase the fraudster had made on Shimizu’s card was something they said they would have “easily missed” had it not been flagged by the bank representative — a one dollar charge from a popular food delivery app to ensure the card number worked. Then, between March and April, over $300 worth of purchases had been made using their account.
Instead, one should always be on high alert by practising “simple security hygiene” like setting unique passwords for all online accounts and ignoring links to online sales or deals that may appear “too good to be true.” “I’ve definitely taken steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” they said. “I’m much more on top of my bills now, and turned on credit notifications so I know each time my credit card has been used.”