Tag: Equifax

How to protect yourself from identity fraud in Canada – MoneySense
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What we do know, however, is the type of fraud reported most often in Canada: 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.

It’s also becoming harder to identify scams. 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.

Videos about fraud and scams

How fraud and scams affect Canadians

Learn more about the various types of scams targeting Canadians today, and what you can do to protect yourself and recover from ID fraud.

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Subscription price: $34.95 per month

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MoneySense editors and journalists work closely with leading personal finance experts in Canada. Since 1999, our award-winning magazine has helped Canadians navigate money matters.
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December 14, 2025
Trump administration moves to overrule state laws protecting credit reports from medical debt

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to overrule any state laws that may protect consumers’ credit reports from medical debt and other debt issues.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has drafted what’s known as an interpretative rule related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, interpreting the law in a way that says the FCRA should preempt any state laws or regulations when it comes to how debt should be reported to the credit bureaus like Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.

This repeals previous Biden-era rules and regulations that allowed states to implement their own credit reporting bans. More than a dozen states like New York and Delaware prohibit the reporting of medical debt on a consumers’ credit report.

Medical debt is often the most disputed part of a consumer’s credit report, because insurance payments can take time, and oftentimes patients do not have the means to fully pay a medical bill if insurance is not covering a procedure that has already taken place.

The three credit bureaus jointly announced in 2023 they would no longer track any medical debts below $500, which at the time the bureaus said would eliminate 70% of all medical debts reported on consumers’ credit files. But some states have gone further than that. New York, Delaware and others passed laws where medical debts can no longer be reported to the credit bureaus.

The CFPB, which is largely not operating at the moment with the exception of actively repealing previous rules written under President Biden or earlier, says in its rule that Congress intended to “create national standards for the credit reporting system” under the FCRA and state laws run afoul of that intention.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that Americans owe roughly $220 billion in medical debt. In Republican-controlled states like South Dakota, Mississippi, West Virginia and Georgia, roughly one in six Americans have outstanding medical debt, according to the KFF.

Having outstanding, delinquent medical debt can impact the ability for an individual to apply for a mortgage, a credit card or an auto loan.

A spokesperson for the Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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October 29, 2025
How to protect your social media accounts from fraud – MoneySense
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What is the game here? What are fraud artists trying to accomplish?

“The premise of social media is that you’re creating and keeping in touch with a circle of trusted contacts,” says Julie Kuzmic, senior compliance officer, consumer advocacy at Equifax Canada. “Your network of contacts is valuable to criminals.”

3 ways fraudsters use social media to steal your identity

Social media fraud typically takes one of three forms:
- The fraudster takes over your account, usually by successfully hacking or guessing your account user ID and password. They can then obtain your list of contacts and do a lot of damage in the time it takes for you to alert the platform and regain control over the account.
- The fraudster creates a new account in your name, often using a photo of you obtained online, and makes contact with people in your network or even strangers.
- The fraudster may play a longer game where they set up an account under a fake persona, then reach out to large numbers of other users in the hope of initiating and nurturing digital relationships, including romance scams.
“I’ve seen situations where somebody starts a conversation as if the recipient already knows them. That person may say, ‘You’ve got the wrong person,’ to which the fraudster responds, ‘Oh, my apologies for making a silly mistake,’” Kuzmic says. That interaction can serve as a foot in the door with an account holder who may be lonely or perceive that they have something in common with the person who initiated the exchange.

“That seemingly harmless interaction can build over time,” Kuzmic says. “It might be a multi-step process that the fraudster will nurture along to build trust.”

The fraud artist may start by sharing legitimate information about a great deal on a product on sale. Only later, once a level of trust has built up, they might suggest going in on an investment together or otherwise creating a scenario where they can separate the target from their money.

Precautions to take on social media

When criminals take over an account or impersonate a social media user, they often try to recruit more victims. They may also reach out to the user’s contacts, who—because they trust their friends—may be more likely to respond. Contacts may also be reassured by the number of other acquaintances they have in common.

“It turns into a kind of higher-percentage phishing scam,” Kuzmic says.

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The doors left unlocked to criminals using social media can include easy-to-guess passwords, open privacy settings, and corroborating personal information obtained from other sources.

For social media users, the best defence against being defrauded includes:
- Using strong passwords that are different from the ones you use on other platforms.
- Getting to know each platform’s privacy settings. (They’re not all the same.) Try to limit the visibility of posts and images that contain clues to personal information (such as birthdays and groups you belong to) to just your friends and contacts.
- Avoiding oversharing even among friends, for example by posting honeymoon photos or naming a pet.
- Not accepting invitations from people you don’t know, even if you appear to have connections in common.
- Maintaining a sense of skepticism at all times, including when you receive messages from known contacts.
Kuzmic notes that simply accepting an invitation usually won’t, in itself, put you in danger. It’s what happens next—fraudsters may ask for help with a financial shortfall, for example.

“Any time a sense of urgency is attached to the request, that’s a red flag,” she says. “Remember, you can always verify whether a request is genuine; for example, contact the person by phone, via email, or on another social network.”
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Equifax Complete Protection is a credit and cybersecurity protection service designed to help Canadians spot the signs of identity fraud faster.

Provides daily credit monitoring and alerts

Scans for your personal data on the dark web

Social media monitoring by industry leader ZeroFox

Subscription price: $34.95 per month

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Further lines of defence: Fraud protection from Equifax

If you think your account has been compromised, contact the social network and follow its recovery protocol. Also alert people on your contact list, preferably through other media, to warn them against approaches by people who claim to be you.

For an extra level of protection, Canadians can subscribe to Equifax Complete^TM Protection. This credit monitoring and ID protection service is $34.95/month and includes a wide range of features, including social media monitoring that can potentially spot suspicious activity before you do. It uses AI to scan your social media accounts for account impersonation, scams, and malicious or inappropriate content.

Learn more about Equifax Complete Protection.

This article is sponsored.

This is a paid post that is informative but also may feature a client’s product or service. These posts are written, edited and produced by MoneySense with assigned freelancers.

Read more about fraud and scams:

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About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.
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October 14, 2025
How to protect your kids from online harm – MoneySense
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They may reach out, develop trust, and ask seemingly innocent questions like, “Oh, you have a dog? What’s your dog’s name?” Using artificial intelligence tools, they then use permutations of this information in attempts to hack the online accounts of other family members.

“A child could be an effective channel for a criminal to gain that information,” warns Julie Kuzmic, senior compliance officer, consumer advocacy with credit bureau Equifax Canada.

A range of harms

As parents know only too well, children’s exposure to the internet comes with a range of benefits, but also lurking dangers. “There are potential harms to children as young as babies and toddlers all the way up to older teenagers—like 18, 19 years old,” Kuzmic says. Over that span they may be exposed to:
- Developmental harms. Exposure to screens and to seeing people and hearing voices online affects brain growth from infancy and can crowd out other activities crucial to cognitive development, like unstructured play and human interaction.
- Harmful content. Age-inappropriate content, misinformation, disinformation, and modified images can all negatively affect the child’s growth, learning, and judgment.
- Nefarious contact and exploitation. Of particular concern for parents is the potential for online predators to contact and develop relationships with their children for their own pernicious purposes.
- Privacy breaches and data collection. As in the example described above, criminals might obtain personal information to defraud or assume the identity of adult members of their household or the children themselves.
- Mental and emotional illness. Excessive social media use in particular has been linked to anxiety, depression, body image issues, sleep deprivation, low physical activity, and stunted social development.
Don’t assume kids know what they’re doing

Though they often appear technology-savvy, at times serving as IT support for their befuddled parents, “kids don’t have the life experience to know that not everybody is who they say they are,” Kuzmic says. At other times, they may “have a low awareness of the permanence of what they do online. Things they post and share may be available and visible for the rest of time, effectively, so there can be an impact well on later into their lives.”

They can be particularly vulnerable in their early teens as they begin to question their parents’ authority, push boundaries, and engage in higher-risk behaviour online. This coincides with the age when they might have their first bank and social media accounts and mobile phone.

“In an age-appropriate way, it’s important to have an ongoing conversation with your children about guidelines and expectations,” Kuzmic says. “At any age, think of protection as a layered and evolving situation. It’s not something that you talk about once and then it’s fine.”

Measures to protect kids from online harms

Safeguarding your offspring online requires a hands-on approach. “Allowing exposure to online activity maybe should come with training wheels, where parents are a little more involved at the start and are learning together with the kids,” Kuzmic says. Some steps she recommends include:
- Setting rules around internet access and the age at which children are allowed to access social media. Some families write it down as a contract that everybody can see and agree to.
- Imposing physical limitations, such as no devices after bedtime.
- Setting up digital limitations such as blocking platforms that screen out potentially undesirable content or a secure virtual private network (VPN).
- Prioritizing online safety. Explain why your kids should be wary of people who approach them online. Advise them to avoid random links, banner ads, or quizzes designed to lure them into unsafe spaces.
- Discouraging oversharing of personal information on social media.
Though bad actors target minors for a variety of malevolent reasons, they all zero in on children’s relative weaknesses, such as a desire to be accepted and befriended. Parents need to be there, Kuzmic says, to remind their kids that what might not appear to them to be a dangerous situation “might actually be a dangerous situation.”

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Digital security from Equifax Complete Protection

The hard part for parents—especially as their kids become older and increasingly independent—is they can’t be there all the time. For an additional level of online safety, consider Equifax Complete^TM Protection, a monthly subscription service that includes parental controls from Bitdefender to restrict which websites and apps your kids can access.

Other features of Equifax Complete Protection include:
- Daily credit monitoring and alerts to notify you of key changes to your Equifax credit report, such as a new credit card or loan application.
- WebScan, which monitors the dark web (hidden websites where criminals buy and sell data) to see if your personal information appears there.
- Social media monitoring provided by industry leader ZeroFox, to alert you to suspicious activity on your social media accounts.
- Online data encryption by NordVPN and online password generation and storage by NordPass
- Device protection from Bitdefender to help stop phishing attempts and protect devices from viruses and malware.
Equifax Complete Protection costs $34.95 per month. To learn more, visit the Equifax website.

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About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.
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September 22, 2025
How to protect your identity – MoneySense
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It happens every day. People who would never dream of giving out their credit card number after receiving a random call, text, or email give away personal information on social media for free—including birthdates, home addresses, and details often used to answer website security questions.

The consequences can be dire. If fraudsters open a credit card, line of credit, or mortgage in your name, for example, you may be held financially liable. Your credit score may be affected, making it very hard for you to get credit—such as a mortgage or car loan—when you need it.

“Identity theft is not new, but we are seeing more and more of it,” says Octavia Howell, vice-president and chief information security officer at credit bureau Equifax Canada. “We are seeing more and more scams perpetrated that enable identity theft to happen.”

In some cases, identity theft is out of your control. Fraudsters may steal personal information through a cyber-attack on a company or government database, for example, or buy it on the dark web (hidden websites where criminals traffic in stolen data).

What can Canadians do to protect themselves from identity theft—and, if it happens, minimize the damage?

6 safety tips to reduce your risk of identity theft

“You can’t really prevent it,” Howell says, but you can make identity theft more difficult for criminals, causing them to move on to easier targets. Here are some preventative measures:
- Get to know your digital profile. Google yourself to get a sense of what information about you is readily available on the internet. Then focus on protecting what is not public, such as usernames, passwords, account numbers, and your social insurance number (SIN). If a company or government department you deal with gets hacked, be especially wary. Change your passwords on sensitive accounts.
- Be vigilant about your financial standing. Check credit card statements and credit reports often for unfamiliar charges. One common tactic is the “salami attack,” where criminals test out a credit card or other account number with a small purchase or transfer, perhaps just for $2. If it works, they’ll take a thicker slice next time. “If you don’t catch it, if you don’t shut it down, it’s just going to continue and in larger amounts,” Howell says.
- Don’t connect to public wifi, especially when accessing your bank account or inputting credit card information.
- Be wary when someone asks for personal information. Don’t respond to requests from unfamiliar people, companies or institutions. If the request appears to come from, say, your bank, a friend, or the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), contact them using a different line to check the legitimacy of the request. (Also read: How to protect your CRA account from scams.)
- Shut down inactive and underused accounts. For example, close a car loan that has been paid off. Untended accounts provide openings for fraudsters.
- Enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication to access your accounts wherever you can. That way, even if criminals have some personal information on you, they get stopped at this second level of security. “That is the thing that can sometimes protect you,” Howell says.
Video Social media scams

A convincing new scam to watch out for

One kind of scam that’s become common over the past year is the “bank investigator” scam, Howell says. Victims receive a call or a text message from a 1-800 number where the caller poses as an investigator from a financial institution or credit bureau, or even the police. They claim to have detected fraud on your account and ask for authentication codes to access your devices, or even to collect your cards in person at your home. Sometimes there’s a second call from someone pretending to be a lawyer, and they seem to have corroborating information.

Once they have enough personal details, the fraudsters might use them to take out a car loan or open a cell phone plan, for example, and then never pay for it—and the victim is stuck with the bill.

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What to do if someone has obtained credit in your name

If you discover someone has used your identity to commit fraud, contact your credit card issuer and both of Canada’s credit bureaus to scrub fraudulent charges from your credit history as soon as possible, Howell emphasizes. Try to determine exactly what information has been compromised. Put fraud monitoring and fraud alerts on the account. Notify the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and local police, especially if there’s a possibility of a visit to your home.

If the fraud persists, it can ruin your credit rating. “That can be devastating,” Howell says. It can take months or even years to fully restore control over your identity.

But the easiest course is prevention. The risk of identity theft is never zero, but you can reduce the odds it will happen to you.

“You just don’t want to be an easy target,” Howell says. “You want to make it a little bit difficult for fraudsters, because there are easier targets out there.”

Detect fraud earlier with Equifax’s credit monitoring

Equifax Complete^TM Protection is a subscription service that keeps a close on your credit report and can alert you if your identity has been compromised. Features of this service include:
- Daily credit monitoring and alerts of key changes to your Equifax credit report, such as a new loan or credit card application
- Social media monitoring by ZeroFox, to alert you to suspicious activity on your social media accounts
- WebScan, which monitors the dark web for personal information you provide
- Online data encryption by NordVPN and password management by NordPass
- Parental controls from Bitdefender to restrict kids’ access to websites and apps
- Device protection from Bitdefender to help stop phishing attempts and block viruses and malware
- Support from an Equifax identity restoration specialist, if your identity is stolen
- Identity theft insurance up to $1 million for out-of-pocket expenses (not available in Quebec)
Equifax Complete Protection costs $34.95 per month. To learn more, visit the Equifax website.
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Equifax Complete Protection

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Equifax Complete Protection is a credit and cybersecurity protection service designed to help Canadians spot the signs of identity fraud faster.

Provides daily credit monitoring and alerts

Scans for your personal data on the dark web

Social media monitoring by industry leader ZeroFox

Subscription price: $34.95 per month

Go to site
This article is sponsored.

This is a paid post that is informative but also may feature a client’s product or service. These posts are written, edited and produced by MoneySense with assigned freelancers.

Read more about fraud and scams:

About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.
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September 4, 2025
How to protect your passwords from fraud and identity theft – MoneySense
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At least until we are a completely passwordless society, however, usernames and passwords and an additional authentication factor are the best defense we have against the spread of digital fraud and identity theft. It’s worth putting in the effort to come up with and keep track of different passwords for each of our accounts.

“Enabling strong authentication methods is one thing that I fight with even my own family members about,” says Octavia Howell, vice-president and chief information security officer for credit bureau Equifax Canada.

Think of usernames, passwords, and multi-factor authentication as more lines of defense for your identity online, she advises. Multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection by combining different authentication factors, such as something you know, something you have, or something you are. If one of the organizations you deal with suffers a data breach, enabling this extra layer of protection for your online identity can help contain the damage and prevent it from spreading to the other sites and accounts you use. They may help keep you from becoming a victim of identity theft.

“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when your information will be compromised. Most of your information is likely already compromised,” Howell says.

Good authentication practices make it harder for fraudsters to obtain more information about you and assume your identity for the purposes of fraud. Here are Howell’s tips and dos and don’ts.

Password practices to avoid

Too many users simply reuse the same username and password across multiple accounts, Howell says. Say criminals gain access to your streaming service account. If you use the same password for an email account, it’s as good as compromised. That may expose more information on you, your friends and your associates.

Another mistake is to use passwords that are easy to guess, such as your children’s name plus “123” and an exclamation point for a special character. Don’t include a pet’s name or a street address, either. Remember, hackers now get help from artificial intelligence (AI) to try thousands of combinations of these clues to gain access to your accounts. (Learn more about AI and identity theft.)

Best password practices

Howell recommends using multiple usernames and different passwords for all your online accounts. Here are some more tips to improve your password hygiene:

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- Google yourself to get a sense of what information about you is readily available online—and don’t use any of it in your passwords.
- Use phrases that are meaningful to you but no one else—for example, places, dates, or special numbers and activities that stick in your mind. Rearrange the words and numbers in ways that don’t repeat key phrases found online.
- Consider using strong passwords provided by the platform, but only if you always access the site from the same device or if you use a password safe, also known as a password manager.
- Use the strongest passwords for the sites containing the most sensitive information. An optometrist’s portal that just contains your eyeglass prescription need not be as complicated, but your online banking is a different matter. “You want to put the right level of security based on the information on each site,” Howell says.
- If multi-factor authentication is available, take the time to enable it. This provides the extra layer of protection and can even serve as an early warning sign that your credentials have been compromised.
sponsored

Equifax Complete Protection

Go to site

Equifax Complete Protection is a credit and cybersecurity protection service designed to help Canadians spot the signs of identity fraud faster.

Provides daily credit monitoring and alerts

Scans for your personal data on the dark web

Social media monitoring by industry leader ZeroFox

Subscription price: $34.95 per month

Go to site
For extra password protection

For added protection, consider subscribing to a broader suite of fraud prevention tools that includes a password manager. Equifax Complete^™Protection is a comprehensive identity protection service that includes credit monitoring, social media monitoring, device protection, and a password manager, among other features.

Equifax Complete Protection’s password manager keeps track of your usernames and passwords in a safe place not tied to your email or browser. Each time you register a new account or change your password, simply load the keys into the password manager for future reference.

A subscription to Equifax Complete Protection costs $34.95 per month.

This article is sponsored.

This is a paid post that is informative but also may feature a client’s product or service. These posts are written, edited and produced by MoneySense with assigned freelancers.

Read more about fraud and scams:

About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.
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September 4, 2025
How to protect your small business from fraud – MoneySense
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Last year, Jeff Brown, head of commercial solutions at Equifax Canada, saw a surge in digitally enabled scams in the construction industry. Criminals claiming to be a legitimate contractor would order supplies that could not be easily identified, such as lumber or plumbing parts, for delivery to a supposed job site — only there was no job site, and the orders were a scam. By the time the real contractor knew what was happening, the materials had been sold on the black market and the fraudsters had cleared out.

“Business-to-business relationships tend to operate on net payment terms. What that means is you can have products delivered to a non-standard location and those products don’t have to be paid to the supplier for 30 days,” says Brown. “That buffer can operate as a getaway window for scammers.”

Having worked a few times, the scam spreads. “When scammers see something they’re able to take advantage of, they double down and it becomes a trend that eventually can become a systemic issue,” says Brown.

Why small companies are attractive targets for fraud

Small businesses like contractors have particular attributes that can make them appealing targets for fraudsters, including:
- They deal in bigger numbers than most consumers do. “The average working capital loan for a small business is around $40,000,” says Brown.
- Small business owners are often unaware of their credit standing and may not be keeping track of their company’s credit reporting.
- Business credit information is more readily available than personal credit information because it is less subject to privacy laws and businesses often want to demonstrate greater transparency to encourage others to work with them. “Businesses have to be spending money to make money. There needs to be an open network for businesses to be able to function,” Brown says. By looking at a company’s credit reports, fraudsters can find a company’s typical bank balance and who their largest suppliers are, for example.
- Businesses usually have more points of egress than consumer accounts for criminals to attack. They can go through or impersonate not just the owner(s) but employees, too. “Businesses have a larger net of potential liabilities,” Brown says.
Red flags for Canadian businesses to watch out for

It’s hard to predict what form the next wave of small-business scams will take. Fraud constantly evolves and the tools that fraudsters use change often. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made the rapid collection and analysis of company information more accessible, while spoofing (creating fake) company images and videos can make it harder to spot what is real versus what is fake. Still, there are red flags for company owners and employees to watch out for:
- Emails from organizations you don’t normally do business with, or emails that use unfamiliar or misspelled domain names.
- Communications demanding quick approvals.
- Callers saying they spoke to a named boss or colleague who approved a transaction that needs to be finalized. “A fraudster can easily obtain company managers’ names and titles online,” Brown notes.
- Any offer that sounds too good to be true, and those with suspicious attachments, should be approached with caution.
Larger businesses include anti-fraud protocols in their onboarding and ongoing training, something that small businesses can’t always offer. But it helps if employees are trusted and empowered to use their own common sense around potential threats.
sponsored

Equifax Complete Protection

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Equifax Complete Protection is a credit and cybersecurity protection service designed to help Canadians spot the signs of identity fraud faster.

Provides daily credit monitoring and alerts

Scans for your personal data on the dark web

Social media monitoring by industry leader ZeroFox

Subscription price: $34.95 per month

Go to site
Keep an eye on your credit reports

One line of defence is to frequently check your company’s credit profile. It’s not as simple as a consumer credit report; it isn’t boiled down to a single score. Instead, it includes a business failure risk score that tells suppliers and financial institutions whether or not a company is a viable partner. It also has a delinquency score that relates to the company’s history of paying bills on time, in full, or not at all.

Business credit reports will also enumerate a company’s financial obligations. “If you see a transaction you do not recognize on your company’s credit report, you can investigate and potentially dispute it. Conversely, if there are any long-time business relationships not indicated on the report, it may be in your interest to add them,” says Brown. “If you’ve had a relationship with a business for 10 years, having that history of good payments is going to help get you the best rates possible and the best products,” Brown says.

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What if your business has been defrauded?

From the fraudster’s perspective, the beauty of the construction scam is that it’s not readily apparent who is liable: the company whose name was used, the supplier, or the financial institution conducting the transaction. While the parties sort that out, the criminals get away.

That’s why it’s important to take steps as soon as possible if you think your business may have been defrauded, including:
- Checking your company’s credit report to see if an unauthorized transaction has taken place
- Contacting the other parties to the transaction as soon as you notice anything strange
- Reporting it to your local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
This article is sponsored.

This is a paid post that is informative but also may feature a client’s product or service. These posts are written, edited and produced by MoneySense with assigned freelancers.

Get free MoneySense financial tips, news & advice in your inbox.

Read more about fraud and scams:

About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.
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September 3, 2025
1.4 million Canadians missed a credit payment in second quarter – MoneySense

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It shows 1.4 million Canadians missed a credit payment in the second quarter. While that’s up by 118,000 compared with the same time last year, it’s down slightly from the first quarter.

Rebecca Oakes, vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax Canada, said it’s “a bit of good news” to see the delinquency rate levelling off. “We’re starting to finally see that stabilize a little bit,” she said in an interview.

“The less good news, though, is that below that high level number, we’re still seeing this financial gap widening for some groups of consumers,” she added, particularly between home owners and non-home-owners.

Widening gap between home owners and non-home-owners

About one in 19 Canadians without a mortgage missed at least one credit payment, compared with one in 37 home owners, the report said.

Total consumer debt rose 3.1% year-over-year to $2.58 trillion, Equifax said, while average non-mortgage debt per consumer increased to $22,147.

Oakes said various factors, including high unemployment and economic uncertainty—amplified by trade disruptions—have made it harder for many Canadians to keep up with day-to-day expenses.

Consumers under the age of 36 are being hit the hardest, the report suggests.

Canada’s best credit cards for balance transfers

Affordability crisis is affecting younger Canadians most

Millennials and Gen Z saw their average non-mortgage debt rise 2% to $14,304 from a year ago. The group’s 90-plus days non-mortgage balance delinquency rate also rose to 2.35%—a 19.7% jump year-over-year.

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“The affordability crisis seems to be hitting younger consumers the hardest,” Oakes said. “Between rising costs, employment uncertainty, and limited access to affordable credit, many are struggling just to stay afloat.”

Also, many home owners who locked in lower mortgage rates during the height of the pandemic could see their payments rise upon renewal.

“Payment levels are going up for many consumers when they’re renewing their mortgage and when that is a little bit too much, the first place you tend to see that is (missed payments) on things like credit cards,” she said.

Ontario remained the hot spot for financial distress in the second quarter. The 90-plus day delinquency rate was 1.75%, which is 15.2 basis points higher than the national average, the report said.

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Rates of missed payments are higher in Toronto and surrounding areas

The rates of missed payments were even higher in the city of Toronto and the surrounding area, which are exposed to the tariff-hit auto and steel sectors.

However, Oakes said the financial gap between home owners versus non-home-owners in Ontario peaked last year and has started to come down.

Another credit-tracking agency, TransUnion, released its second-quarter consumer credit report last week. It said consumer debt reached $2.52 trillion in the second quarter, up 4.4% year-over-year.

“Subprime consumers are more likely to feel the impact of higher costs of living and may choose to take on additional debt, such as credit card balances, to help cover the costs of goods and services,” Matthew Fabian, director of financial services research and consulting at TransUnion Canada, said in a statement.

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The Canadian Press

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August 18, 2025
New to Canada? A new way to transfer your credit score – MoneySense

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The credit reporting company said Thursday that the Global Consumer Credit File will make it easier for immigrants to access services like loans and cellphone plans in Canada by providing the additional data.

“It’s really important when newcomers land that they get access to the financial services ecosystem, and without credit history that’s very difficult to do,” said Sue Hutchison, head of Equifax Canada.

“They’re typically looking to, you know, rent an apartment, get a mobile phone, probably a credit card, and all of those things require credit history. So not having it makes it very difficult for newcomers.”

Earning, saving and spending in Canada: A guide for new immigrants

What is Nova Credit? What does it offer?

Equifax isn’t the first to launch such a program in Canada. San Francisco-based Nova Credit, which launched in 2016 to provide global credit score access, expanded into Canada last year in a partnership with Scotiabank.

The company has since expanded with partnerships at RBC, BMO and Rogers Communications Inc., among others.

Nova Credit partners with several credit bureaus, including Equifax, to provide data from more than 20 countries. With Equifax becoming a competitor in the space, Hutchison said conversations are underway around data access going forward.

Foreign credit score sourcing with Equifax

Equifax, which has operations or investment in 24 countries, will have the advantage of being the direct provider of data from its foreign bureaus, said Hutchison.

“It’s going be coming directly from us. So that’s, I think, very attractive to the lenders themselves that they’ll be dealing directly with the credit bureau.”

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The Canadian Press

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October 24, 2024
What to do if you’re a victim of bank account or credit card fraud – MoneySense
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Interac e-Transfer is generally a safe way to send money in Canada. In fact, “for every $100 spent across the Interac Debit and e-Transfer networks, less than $0.02 was lost to fraud [in 2021],” according to Interac.

Regardless, fraud happens. E-Transfer fraudsters generally use text or email channels to exploit victims. Some examples of fraud in Canada include:
- Tax refund or government relief scams
  A fraudulent “deposit” of an income tax refund or government financial support is sent to access banking information.
- Lottery scams
  The fraudster requests the provision of sensitive information or a prepayment of an administration fee.
- Rental scams
  Someone pretends to be collecting rent on behalf of your landlord or offers a nice apartment for rent at a low price and requests a deposit to secure it.
- Fraudulent sales
  Typically through an online marketplace, someone may request prepayment for a hard-to-find or rare item and then never send it to the buyer.
- Relationship scams
  Someone impersonates a family member, coworker or romantic interest and asks for money for an emergency.
- Work from home ads
  An applicant is asked to prepay for supplies, training or some other work-related expense for a fake job.
- Hacking an email account
  Scammers find emails containing security questions and answers, and then intercept Interac e-Transfers and deposit the funds to their own accounts.
If the fraudsters were able to send transfers directly from your account, William, it sounds like they were able to hack into your online banking. This may have been from a phishing text, email or website that tricked you into entering your bank login details and allowed the fraudsters to access your account afterwards.

How do you report bank account fraud?

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), the first things to do when you are a victim of fraud are:
1. Contact your financial institutions
  Put flags on all of your accounts, even at other financial institutions. You should change your passwords.
2. Contact the police
  Report the incident to the police and update them on any further developments.
3. Report the incident
  Contact Canada’s two credit bureaus: TransUnion and Equifax. You can consider credit monitoring that reports suspicious credit activity to you. You should also contact the CAFC by phone at 1-888-495-8501 or using its online Fraud Reporting System.
What do banks consider unauthorized transactions?

It sounds like you have done all the right things so far, William. As far as the bank’s responsibility, each financial institution may have different definitions of what constitutes an unauthorized transaction. You have to check your debit card or credit card agreements to see the terms, which could include restrictions on how long after the transaction occurred that the financial institution will take responsibility. That may be where you are running into trouble.

According to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), you may be responsible for losses in cases when you:
- Use your date of birth or telephone number as your PIN.
- Shared your card’s PIN with someone, including a family member.
- Keep a written record of the PIN “in proximity to” the card, including writing your PIN on the back of the card.
- Did not report your card as being lost or stolen in the amount of time specified in your card agreement.
- Refuse to cooperate in an investigation of unauthorized use.
- Made fraudulent deposits with your card.
- Did not take the necessary steps to protect your pin.
If you haven’t had luck dealing with your bank directly, William, you can contact the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments at 1-888-451-4519 or [email protected].

You could speak with a bank fraud litigation lawyer to see if they can help. An initial consult might confirm whether you have a case or if there are further steps you can take.
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Jason Heath, CFP

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January 8, 2024
Equifax completes credit database cloud migration | Bank Automation News

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Consumer credit reporting agency Equifax finished migrating its credit database to the cloud in mid-January as part of a five-year, $1.5 billion process to move its technology stack and data to the cloud. “We’re in the last mile. It’s a big investment … people, time and money,” Automotive General Manager Lena Bourgeois told Bank Automation News’ sister […]

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Joey Pizzolato

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February 9, 2023
Equifax Fires 24 Workers With Secret Second Jobs

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Winter came early for 24 people who were working secret second jobs or prohibited side hustles at Equifax.

Miguel Pereira I Getty Images
Working from home with baby in Spain in 2020.

The credit reporting bureau used one of its own products, The Work Number, to find out if employees were working second jobs against company policy, as well as chats with managers and things like VPN usage, Insider reported Thursday.

Then it fired them.

“We expect our team to be fully dedicated to EFX and have one role …their job at EFX,” the CEO Mark Begor wrote in an email to employees this week.

The outlet cited conversations with unnamed sources and shared documents. Equifax confirmed some information about the event in a statement to Entrepreneur.

“Equifax recently conducted an investigation into a number of employees suspected of holding dual, full-time employment that conflicted with their roles at our company,” a company spokesperson said.

“As a result, several employees who violated our company code of conduct and outside employment policy, which were in effect at the time of the investigation, were recently terminated,” it added.

The whole operation reveals a way employers, some dealing with increasingly remote laptop workforces — and others trying to wrangle people back in the office — can use surveillance to regain control in a hybrid environment.

Equifax had access to a product called The Work Number to produce reports to find out about employee activities. It offers the likes of employers and auto lenders the ability to access employment history. You can also request your own report from TWN.

Equifax told Insider a potential employer would not be able to see certain information the records have, such as salaries.

The company says 2.5 million companies have submitted payroll records to TWN. It has work history and pay information on 105 million workers in the U.S. — and expects interest in the product to grow, per the company’s disclosures.

One author of the Insider piece said their TWN report had every job they had ever worked besides unpaid internships and one job from high school.

Under the banner of The Work Number, Equifax even targets a specific product aimed at employers who might want to check if their people are working multiple jobs, called Talent Report Employment Monitoring.

The company made use of the technology and data behind it in its own months-long investigation.

“I’m not sure how Equifax can be trusted with data when it uses it to spy on its own employees,” one Equifax employee told Insider.

Equifax also told Insider that some people “may have even dialed into interviews with Equifax, conducted as part of the probe, from another job site, she said, including one who worked as a nurse, and another who claimed he was at home while sitting in what looked like an office cubicle,” the outlet wrote.

Equifax’s code of conduct has said since 2017 employees have to disclose outside work. The company allows people to work from home two days a week

One person who worked in cybersecurity at the company and was fired told the outlet they were not aware their non-compete agreement didn’t allow them to have a side hustle in a different industry.

The WSJ was one of the first outlets, back in August 2021, to report on people having a secret second job while working remotely.

Equifax also told Entrepreneur it “followed all applicable laws in its handling of this situation.”

Besides the TWN reports, Equifax used other tools for the investigation, including speaking with managers, locating people who seemed to drop out at certain points during the day, and whether people were not using the company VPN for at least 13 hours a week, or if people being investigated seemed to lie about their locations.

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Gabrielle Bienasz

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October 14, 2022