In a Léger survey reported by Equifax Canada, 65% of respondents said they encountered at least one fraudulent message or online item in the past year, while 83% said they could spot scams.
The confidence figure included 22% who described themselves as very confident and 61% who were somewhat confident. Reported exposure was highest in British Columbia, where 75% said they had received at least one kind of fraudulent message or content, and lowest in Quebec at 53%. These figures track reported exposure, not financial losses.
Respondents also described gaps in account security. Fifty-eight percent said they used multi-factor authentication on several financial and social media accounts, while 50% used unique passwords for important accounts. Another 22% said they reused the same two or three passwords across multiple accounts. Equifax warned that automated attacks can turn a password disclosed in a breach into attempted access elsewhere.
The most frequently reported approaches were emails or texts impersonating banks or Canadian government agencies, named by 37%, and fake notices about access to bank or social media accounts, reported by 36%. Investment offers and fake social media messages or videos impersonating trusted brands or public figures each were reported by 26%; 16% cited fake job offers.
After a breach alert, 66% said they would contact their bank or financial institution, 44% would immediately change the affected password and 24% would contact a credit reporting agency about a fraud alert. Fourteen percent said they would ignore the notice unless they saw suspicious activity. That share was 20% among respondents ages 18 to 34 and 11% among those 55 and older.
In an English translation of the French-language release, Octavia Howell, Equifax Canada chief information security officer, said, “awareness alone is not enough.”
A separate 2026 survey by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) found that 73% of online Canadians felt confident identifying phishing. In the 2026 poll, 26% said they had experienced a phishing scam and 8% reported a phishing scam involving a loss of money or data. The results are not directly comparable with Equifax’s survey because the questions and incident definitions differ.
Léger surveyed 1,525 Canadian adults ages 18 and older through its LEO online panel from Oct. 9 to 11, 2026. The CSE survey covered 2,330 online Canadians ages 18 and older and was conducted from Jan. 9 to 29, 2026.
