Keep your documents safe when you travel: prevent identity theft

A personal story....

Our Operations Manager, Melissa McEvoy, received some great advice on how to protect identity theft while traveling from her Lawyer. We thought we'd pass this helpful information along to you:

• photocopy all of your identification, front and back - this includes birth certificates, SIN cards, passports, credit cards....any piece of ID that can be stolen
• have a copy of your passport commissioned by your lawyer, to confirm that the copy of the passport is indeed you. This is essential if you are traveling and your passport is lost or stolen. It makes dealing with an Embassy in another country that much easier and getting home, without a passport much more likely
• do not carry items like your SIN card, birth certificate, passport with you on a daily basis. Keep them stored in a safe place
• keep a copy of your photocopied information in a safety deposit box and in a safe place with a trusted family member or friend. Include in this pile of information the contact numbers for Equifax and Transunion (the 2 credit reporting companies in Canada) and for any pieces of ID, like health care cards that may not contain a phone number directly on the card

Operations Manager, Melissa McEvoy

 I was traveling in Arizona when I lost my wallet in a restaurant. This good advice from my lawyer made it so simple for me to make the necessary phone calls to protect my information from being stolen. If I hadn't photocopied my information, I wouldn't have my account numbers and I wouldn't necessarily have remembered who to call in such a stressful situation.



I had stored photocopies of my documents with my Mom - one phone call to her and she was able to give me all the essential information (ID numbers and corresponding phone numbers of the cards in my wallet), so that I could immediately cancel the cards in my wallet and notify Equifax/Transunion.