What we do know, however, is the type of fraud reported most often in Canada in 2024: identity fraud. To pull this off, criminals use phishing scams and other ruses to trick Canadians into revealing personal and financial information. Depending on what they find out, scammers could impersonate you, charge purchases to your credit card, apply for a loan and/or mortgage in your name, drain your bank accounts and more.
Scams are becoming harder to identify. Some fraudsters now use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create highly convincing audio and video “deepfakes” using Canadians’ voices and faces. AI tools are also helping criminals target exponentially more people at once, making scams harder to avoid.
How to protect your identity
To help you protect yourself against ID theft and fraud, we created a series of how-to articles with practical tips on prevention and what to do if you think your identity may have been stolen.
We’ve also launched a column dedicated to helping you protect specific things and people in your life. Check back monthly for new installments.