Fifty years ago if you wanted to steal money from someone you had to steal cash.  Today money is electronic, so if your identity is stolen you can lose a lot of money very quickly, and that can lead to a mountain of debt.

How big a problem is identity theft and fraud?  That's the question we asked today's guest, Kelley Keehn, the author of Protecting You and Your Money: A Guide to Identity Theft and Fraud.  She told us that:

A third of Canadians have been victims of some type of fraud.  What was more curious is that two thirds of Canadians surveyed said that they knew of someone that was a victim of fraud, so even if it hasn't happened to us yet, a lot of us know someone who was a victim of fraud.

Credit card fraud is a problem, but in most cases your credit card issuer will cover you, so if you fill out a form or prove that you didn't authorize the charges the problem can be solved quickly.

Identity theft is another matter altogether, and it can take many weeks and a lot of effort to restore your name.

So what can you do to protect yourself? On today’s show Kelley gives a lot of practical advice on preventing identity theft and fraud.