Put Up an Identity Shield to Protect Your Social Insurance Number

One of the most important keys to your identity is your social insurance number (SIN). Guard it. Protect it. Keep it away from the fraudsters.

1. Don't carry your social insurance card in your wallet. If that wallet is ever lost or stolen, that social insurance card is equivalent to a winning lottery ticket in the wrong hands of the wrong guy.
2. Never give out your SIN, credit card number, or other personal information over the phone unless you have a trusted business relationship with the organization and initiated the call using a verified phone number.
3. Avoid including your SIN on medical history forms and job applications.
4. Provide your SIN only when absolutely necessary—for tax forms, employment, stock, property transactions, etc.
5. Keep it away from accounts. If your financial institution attempts to use your SIN as an account number, ask them to change it immediately.
6. If a government agency requests your SIN, look for a Privacy Act notice. This will state whether a SIN is required, how it will be used, how it is protected, and what happens if you don’t provide it.
7. Your social insurance number should not be disclosed to any other person, please visit the following site to know more about who can ask for it (SIN) and when not to provide it http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/sin/protect/provide.shtml