Choose your PIN wisely, or fraud may not be covered

EDMONTON – After having her wallet stolen, a Sherwood Park woman is dealing with a big credit card bill. She thought the bank would cover the fraudulent charges, but it won’t, and it’s because of her PIN.

Banks warn clients to choose PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) that are not easy to guess.

Sandi Carmichael’s purse was stolen from her van. The thieves used her credit card to withdraw $600 in cash.

Carmichael says the Bank of Montreal (BMO) won’t cover the charges because her PIN was her year of birth.

 “BMO advises banking clients to protect themselves against debit or credit card fraud by taking several specific precautions,” explained a BMO spokesperson in a statement to Global News on Wednesday. “One primary request, which is often repeated, since we know how thieves operate when a purse or wallet is stolen with a person’s identity documents, is to choose a PIN number for your banking cards that is not easily known, such as your birthdate.  The Bank cannot reimburse for card fraud if a customer has not taken the basic security steps.”

This is not a rare policy for financial institutions to have. The fine print of your bank’s cardholder agreement outlines that if PINs are too easy to guess, they could void coverage. Some examples include:

–          Name

–          Birth date

–          Year of birth

–          Telephone number

–          Address

–          Any number on another card in your wallet

–          Easily guessed number

Sandi agrees her PIN should have been more difficult, but believes banks need to do more to educate clients about this policy.

“This happens, and if I wasn’t aware of it, I’m sure lots of other people aren’t,” she says.

“When they said ‘is your PIN in your wallet?’ I thought they meant written on a piece of paper. Never did I think they would consider the PIN in there because my driver’s license was on there,” she explains.

In the statement, BMO says, “the Bank does require that customers follow clearly and consistently communicated steps to protect themselves, along with the Bank, from being victims of fraud.”

The BMO says there are more privacy and security tips on its website, and also suggests the Canadian Bankers Association website a good resource.

Carmichael hopes her experience will help others learn to protect themselves and their money.

“Be diligent, change your PIN, make it a six or eight digit PIN and be aware of what your bank’s policies are,” she says.

“We all think it won’t happen to us, but it happened to me.”

The BMO passes along the following tips on making sure your PIN is strong:

DO

• use 6-digit passwords. Avoid birthday dates, numeric and alphabetic sequences or any other combinations that can be easily guessed
• change your passwords frequently
• use different passwords for every system you access

DON’T

• use words from dictionaries, names of friends or relatives, calendar dates or common phrases
• use combinations of your name and initials
• tell anyone your password
• write passwords on easily accessible places such as your desk calendar or under your keyboard

Follow @Emily_Mertz

With files from Julie Matthews, Global News