Courtesy of Sam Wei (November 2021)

WHAT IS IDENTITY THEFT AND HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOURSELF FROM IT?

Identity theft is a crime in which a third party obtains your personal information with the intention to commit fraud. This personal information can include you driver ’s license, social insurance number, banking information and credit card information. With this information, someone can withdraw from your bank accounts, rack up credit expenses, apply for loans in your name and more. Signs that you’re the victim of identity theft may be unexplained expenses on your credit card bills, a creditor informs you they’ve received an application that you never sent, a bank informs you they’ve declined a loan you never applied for, et cetera. Thankfully, reputable banks and creditors have systems in place to stop or catch identify theft quickly, and most often you won’t have to pay for purchases made using stolen information. However there are still several things you should do to protect yourself. Here are seven steps you can take to minimize the risk of having your personal information stolen.

1. Don’t carry your social insurance number, passport, birth certificate, or other such documents unless necessary. 2. Review your bank and credit card statements regularly so you can catch any unexplainable purchases. 3. Limit the amount of credit cards you have and cancel any inactive accounts. 4. Don’t give any personal information over the phone unless you have verified the caller, and avoid any offer that sounds too good to be true as it most likely is. 5. Don’t write passwords down. If you have trouble remembering them, get an encrypting app that only you can access. 6. Shred, or rip up, any documentation that has your name, address, birthday and social insurance number on it. 7. Avoid easy to guess passwords and pins such as birth years and names of family members.

KAKURO Fill in the grid with the digits from 1 to 9. Each group of digits must add up to the number that is just to the left or above it. No group can repeat the same digit twice. You may repeat a digit within a column or row. There is no requirement to use all of the digits.

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