Many Canadians overestimate ability to indentify scams: survey

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Published November 26, 2020 at 1:27 am

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Are you confident in your ability to spot a scam when you see one?

If your answer is yes, you could be overestimating your abilities.

A recent study from the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) found that, while 82 per cent of respondents were confident in their ability to detect a phishing attempt, only 31 per cent could correctly identify all the red flags of a phishing scam.

Additionally, the majority of respondents—57 per cent—incorrectly suggested phishing scams were easy to identify due to spelling errors, indicating a general lack of understanding of the increasing sophistication of phishing attacks.

“Banks go to great lengths to keep Canadians’ money safe and protect their personal and financial information, but the realities of a connected world mean that cyber threats are not limited to our systems and technology,” Neil Parmenter, president and CEO of the CBA, said in a news release.

“In the digital era, security is a shared responsibility and Canadians have a role to play. To that end, the banking sector is committed to promoting cybersecurity best practices to help customers better protect themselves and their devices against a rising tide of digital fraud,” he continued.

Further, 83 per cent of respondents said having unique passwords or personal identification numbers (PIN) for each of their accounts and devices was important, and 80 per cent said they would never share their password or PIN with anyone, including their spouse or family members.

However, while many respondents understood the importance of a strong password—63 per cent couldn’t identify all the qualities of a weak password.

Moreover, 80 per cent of users said they were unable to remember all of their passwords, which they reported as the biggest barrier to maintaining unique passwords.

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