Snapshot survey reveals Canadians’ anti-scam practices, as well as factors contributing to vulnerability
As the continuing pandemic crisis breeds uncertainty and insecurity across the world, people have become more exposed to threats of fraud. In January 2021, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has reported that Canadians lost over $10 million to fraud, 42% more than the amount reported in January 2020.
But according to a new Ipsos survey commissioned by TD Bank, people are taking those threats seriously – and older individuals are showing the wisdom of age as they take steps to stay safe.
According to the survey, nearly four fifths (78%) of respondents said they were targets of attempted fraud in the past year – including attempts that were detected and thwarted – and slightly more than half of respondents (56%) continue to see themselves at risk of being targeted for financial fraud.
However, Canadians aren’t taking those attacks lying down. The majority of respondents surveyed said they’re taking precautions to avoid potential scams, including 79% who would not divulge personal information to a caller who claims to be from their financial institution or the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA); 74% who would never click a link in an email that’s not familiar to them; and 72% who said they would not send money to a person they met online.
A deeper dive into the findings also revealed that Baby Boomers, those aged 56 and above, appear to be taking more precautions against fraud. Compared to their millennial counterparts, a higher share of Boomers said that they use strong passwords and change them regularly (63% vs. 45% of millennials) and shred their personal documents before discarding them (80% vs. 44%). All in all, just 1% of respondents who were at least 56 years old said they don’t take any proactive measures to protect themselves against fraud, compared to 9% of millennials.
“While 82% of Gen Z and Millennial respondents agreed that being too trusting makes someone more vulnerable to fraud, the number went up to 93% for both Gen Xers and those aged 56 and older,” said Tammy McKinnon, head of the Financial Crimes & Fraud Management Group at TD. “This is likely because younger generations who grew up with modern technologies feel they are more tech-savvy and don’t think they need to take as many safety precautions as their parents.”
According to McKinnon, older generations of Canadians seemed to be more skeptical of technology. Nine tenths (89%) of those aged 56 and older said that finding a technology hard to use would make someone more susceptible to fraud, compared to only two thirds (66%) of Gen Z and around three fourths (73%) of Millennial respondents.
Looking at the different modes of fraud they experienced in the last year, the largest number of Canadians overall said they were contacted by fraudsters via phone (53%), including 36% of respondents who were contacted by a CRA scam artist. Nearly half (47%) were targeted by phishing or email scams, while 40% said they got fraudulent text messages. Other specialized schemes, such as romance scams (7%) and healthcare or COVID-19-related scams (6%) were also cited.
“The results from our 2021 survey underscore the need to always be vigilant – but also to look for situations where friends or loved ones might be more vulnerable to fraudsters,” McKinnon said. “Loneliness and social isolation, which I think we can all relate to over the past year, is a good prompt to have conversations with family and friends.”
When asked to identify factors that could make people more vulnerable to fraud, a majority of respondents cited pandemic-driven situations such as social isolation (84%), financial hardship or job loss (80%). At the behavioural level, they pointed to increased online activity such as oversharing on social media (88%) and shopping (82%), as well as possibly being too busy to spot signs of a scam (81%) and the Canadian tendency to be too trusting in general (89%).
As people spend more time online – the recent TD Digital Customer Survey revealed two thirds of Canadians intend to continue accessing digital platforms more than they did pre-pandemic – McKinnon encouraged the public to do their research and verify that requests to transfer money are legitimate.
“You can help protect your family by educating them on the most common scams, such as the CRA scam, emergency scams that coerce people into sending money to alleged endangered relatives, or romance scams that use legitimate dating websites to extort money from those looking for companionship,” she added.
