Fraud Update: 1 In 6 Are Hit By Card Fraud

Travel Fraud is a big concern in our industry that is not going away but only growing with fraudsters becoming more and more skilled.  Fraud affects your bottom line!  How much do you know about fraud in the travel industry?  Have you educated your front line sales people on what to look for and what to do with suspected travel fraud?  ACTA is working diligently to assist our members in the prevention of fraud.  Please visit our new section on TRAVEL FRAUD PREVENTION to educate, update and be informed on this serious problem. Available to ACTA MEMBERS only! 

Related artice by Kaven Baker-voakes, www.blacklocks.ca

One in six Canadians has replaced a credit or debit card in the past year due to fraud, according to new research. A study by a debt counselling agency identified 17 percent of Canadians surveyed said they’d had to destroy a card due to a security breach.

“There is room for improvement,” said Jeff Schwartz, executive director of Consolidated Credit Counselling Services of Canada Inc., a non-profit agency that offers paid advice for debtors; “Canadians are very technology and internet savvy compared to other people around the world. It has its advantages and disadvantages.”

The research Global Consumers: Losing Confidence In The Battle Against Fraud by Aite Group, a U.S.-based consultancy, surveyed 6,159 consumers in twenty countries worldwide. The response rate of 300 in Canada carried a margin of error of 5 percentage points. Among the findings:

•12 percent of Canadians have thrown intact bank records in the garbage;
•6 percent have written down their Personal Identification Number and “kept it with their card”;
•5 percent say they’d provide credit information when shopping at websites without security software;
•3 percent admit to responding to unfamiliar emails soliciting bank information.
“They’ll say you need to update personal information and it looks like any bank in Canada,” Schwartz said. “You clink on the link, fill in the information and all of a sudden they have all your data.”

“It’s on the younger end where people feel the internet is a safe place to be,” Schwartz added. “On the other hand you have seniors entering the internet world; they have lived their lives without the internet or email and are not wary to the scams that are out there.”

Canadians generally rated favourably by international comparison. The survey of respondents asked if they had been victimized by credit fraud ranged from a high of 44 percent in Mexico to 42 percent in China; 41 percent in the U.S.; 31 percent in Australia; 26 percent in France; 20 percent in Italy; 16 percent in Germany and 10 percent in Sweden.

However Canadians were among the least likely to blame their bank or credit card issuer for a breach of privacy. Only 6 percent said they’d switch banks after being victimized by fraud.

Statistics Canada has estimated the risk of credit fraud increases with personal earnings, concluding higher-income people are more likely to use online banking and become accustomed to exchanging data electronically. “Individuals whose personal income exceeded $60,000 were about three times more likely than those whose income was less than $20,000 to be victims of bank fraud – 6 percent versus 2 percent,” the agency has reported.