Are your kids exposing themselves to online fraud?
By Amy Brown-Bowers • Bankrate.com

Social networking sites
Ellen Roseman, personal finance columnist for the Toronto Star, recently joined Facebook and noticed some big differences between adults' and teens' profiles. Adults are "much more cautious about putting information up there," she says, adding "young people are not."

"For young people, it's always the daily update ... They're putting their birthday and their favourite stuff and maybe fraudsters who are (on Facebook) can read all about them and get personal details in a way to fill out a complete profile of them and use it in a fraudulent manor," Roseman says.

She suggests people restrict the information they post on their sites as well as access to their profiles.

Minos agrees. "To protect yourself from identity theft it's a really good idea to keep sensitive personal information like your address, your date of birth and year of birth, all of that sensitive information that identity thieves love, off the Internet," she says. "Sometimes we forget what is personal, sensitive information."

Facebook site administrators instruct users to "be cautious about posting and sharing personal information, especially information that could be used to identify you or locate you offline, such as your address or telephone number."

Phishing e-mails
The more active kids are online, the more likely they are to receive phishing e-mails --deceptive messages designed to glean personal data from people that can then be used for fraudulent purposes.

"If your kids are online and they do have a bank account, they might start receiving phishing e-mails," Minos says. "So that's one of the things parents can bring up as well is recognizing phishing e-mails for what they are, which is a scam, and to not fall for them."

Minos also recommends parents make sure their kids' computers have firewall protection or anti-spam software, especially if they bank online.

New curriculum on the way
There is good news for parents looking for ready-to-use teaching material to work through with their children. Last year, the federal government earmarked $3 million for the FCAC to develop education materials for Canadian youth on the topic of financial literacy, says Jérémie Ryan, program manager for financial education at the FCAC.

Since then, the FCAC has been working with the British Columbia Securities Commission to compile 11 modules covering topics like how to prepare a budget, credit and debt and investing. The curriculum will be available in PDF format on the web come September. In addition, there will be an online interactive component that lets people go to the website and work through the modules independently, Ryan says.

"So if a parent wanted to go through some of these modules with their kid, they can easily do so by going online," Ryan says.

Amy Brown-Bowers is a writer in Toronto.