EDMONTON – The Edmonton Police Service says a growing number of identity thieves are targeting younger victims.
March is fraud prevention month and the EPS is reminding residents that fraudsters don’t discriminate.
More and more young people are falling victim to fraud and identity theft. Police say this is because teenagers are online more often than adults, making them prime targets for Kijiji and social media scams.
“Visa just did a study and there’s 92 per cent of people under 35 are targeted,” says EPS Cst. Nadine Swist.
“Of course, youth fall under that category, and I think youth are a growing concern because they are growing with the internet.”
Sixteen year-old Keana Kachmar shares “personal pictures, just day-to-day life stuff,” online.
“We’ve gotten concert tickets before,” adds her 14-year-old sister Kennedy.
“Some people put their phone numbers,” admits Keana.
“Things like information about themselves that not everyone should know,” says Kennedy.
While the Kachmar girls are aware of the danger, they are surprised to hear that police say, in some cases, fraudsters are going after children as young as six months old.
“You don’t want to put too much information about your child – birth date, name, full name, whatever – out there, where people can easily just pull that information out and create Social Insurance Numbers and other identity papers,” says Cst. Swist.
“That’s weird,” says Kennedy. “That’s just creepy.”
“Fraudsters look at everybody as a potential target for them and fraudsters don’t care if you’re six months old or you’re 90 years old,” explains Cst. Swist.
“They look at you as a potential person they can steal your identity. They look at you as a potential person they can steal whatever they can from you.”
“It’s kind of scary to think that someone could do that to me to me,” says 16-year-old Connor Jones. “I guess the only way to prevent it is to just not post that information.”
So how can you protect yourself and your children?
Experts suggest changing your PIN and passwords regularly, and not giving your personal information out to people or companies you don’t know.
“Talk to your kids about having passwords, about giving your identity – your information – to strangers,” says Cst. Swist. “Even people who think are trustworthy, if you don’t see them face-to-face, you don’t really know if they’re trustworthy.”
“You really have to keep an eye on what they’re doing on the internet. IT’s hard because there are so many internet access points.”
With files from Laurel Gregory, Global News
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