I want to be harder to scam.

Get fewer scam calls on a mobile phone

First save the numbers you want to hear from in your contacts: family, friends, your doctor, the pharmacy, the plumber. Then turn on the setting for your phone, listed below, and those numbers still ring.

iPhone

Settings › Apps › Phone › Screen Unknown Callers › Silence

Google Pixel

Phone › More › Settings › Spam and Call Screen

Samsung Galaxy

Phone › More options › Settings › Block numbers › Block calls from unknown numbers

On an iPhone. Calls from numbers not in your contacts go to voicemail and still show in your Recents list. Apple says screening does not run while you are roaming, and switches off for 24 hours after you call emergency services.

On a Pixel. Call Screen answers first, asks who is calling and why, and shows you what the caller says. If it reads as spam, the phone hangs up; if not, it rings.

On a Samsung. Samsung says the setting blocks calls from “unknown or unspecified numbers”. To test the setting, turn it on and ask someone who is not in your contacts to call you. If the phone rings, unsaved numbers still get through.

• What it does. Fewer calls from strangers ring, so you have fewer calls to judge.
• What it does not do. If your pharmacy calls from a number you have not saved, the phone treats that call like any stranger’s.

Get fewer scam calls on a landline

Call your phone company and ask what call blocking it offers.

Hang up on a call that says it is your bank, and call the number on your card

Hang up, then call the number on the back of your bank card. The full step: Call the company back on a number you look up yourself.

Get fewer sales calls: the Do Not Call List

This works for a mobile phone and a landline. Register on the National Do Not Call List website or by calling 1-866-580-3625. Registration is free and never expires. It takes effect 31 days after you register.

• What it does. Telemarketers have to stop calling numbers on it.
• What it does not do. It does not stop calls from scammers.

Who can still call you

• A registered charity, and anyone calling on its behalf.
• A political party, a riding association or a candidate.
• A firm collecting information for a survey.
• A newspaper of general circulation selling subscriptions.
• Anyone you gave express consent to.
• A business you bought from, leased from, or held a contract with in the last 18 months, or made an enquiry to in the last 6 months.

Tell any caller: “Add me to your own do not call list.” Most of the callers above have to keep that list and honour it. Firms doing surveys or market research do not.

Keep your main email off marketing lists

One address for people who know you. A second for shops, loyalty cards, warranty cards, delivery notices and anything with a form. It costs nothing and takes about ten minutes, by our estimate.

• What it does. Keeps your main address off company lists. When the second address fills up with junk mail, stop using it. The people you know still have your main address.
• What it does not do. Your main address stays on the lists it is already on.

The rule about unsubscribe links

On mail from a company you dealt with, use the link. By law the sender has to make it work at no cost to you, keep it live for at least 60 days, and stop emailing you within 10 business days.

On mail you did not expect, do not touch the unsubscribe link. Delete the message. The Competition Bureau says:

“Never reply to a spam email, even to unsubscribe. Often, this just serves to verify your address to scammers.”

Get less advertising mail

Unaddressed flyers and menus

Write a note saying you do not want unaddressed advertising mail. Put it where your letter carrier will see it: in or on your mailbox, or on the inside lip of a community box. That is Canada Post’s Consumers’ Choice program; there is no form to fill in.

On our reading, the Consumers’ Choice note does not cover flyers delivered by anyone other than Canada Post. Addressed mail, advertising included, keeps coming, and so do three kinds of unaddressed mail:

• Community newspapers without commercial inserts.
• Mailings in the public interest from federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, and from band councils.
• Election material: from Elections Canada, from provincial and municipal election officials, and from parties and candidates during an election.

The note takes a few weeks to work. If flyers still come after that, call 1-866-607-6301. To start delivery again later, call 1-800-267-1177.

Addressed marketing letters

Register free with the Canadian Marketing Association’s Do Not Mail service, which reduces personally addressed marketing offers. Members who do direct mail must use it. Companies that are not members do not have to.

• How soon. About six weeks to start working.
• How long. Six years, and nobody reminds you when it runs out.

Canada Post will also take you off its own marketing database on request. In its words, opting out “won’t stop all marketing mail. It will only stop the mail that uses the Canada Post lists.”

If you buy mail forwarding for a move, Canada Post will, with your permission, pass the new address to companies you already deal with. To stop that, call its customer service on 1-800-267-1177.

Find out what a company knows about you, and ask it to stop using it

Under federal privacy law you can ask any business for the personal information it holds about you. Put it in writing, address it to the privacy contact if they name one, and say what you are after. We think a narrow request comes back faster than a broad one.

• A company has 30 calendar days to answer, with one extension of up to 30 days more if it tells you before the first deadline.
• Little or nothing to pay. A fee is only allowed if they tell you the amount first and you agree to go ahead.
• You can tell a company to stop using your information at any time, within legal or contract limits and with reasonable notice. It has to tell you what stopping will mean for you.

If a company will not answer or holds back more than it should, the complaint goes to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

A company that passed your details on lawfully does not have to make the other company delete them. Write to the other company as well.

What is public about you, and what you can remove

The National Register of Electors

This is Elections Canada’s list of voters, and being on it is a choice. To come off it, write to Elections Canada with your name, date of birth, current home and mailing addresses, and your signature:

Elections Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M6

• What leaving costs you. You would register at the polling station when you vote, and you would stop getting the card that tells you where to go.

Land title

Ontario’s land registry holds the official record of ownership, mortgages and transfers, and anyone can order the register for a parcel and read the names on it. There is no opt-out.

Company directorships

If you are a director of a federal corporation, your name and address are published in the Corporations Canada database, as corporate law requires.

Ontario’s municipal voters’ list

In Ontario, the municipal voters’ list is a public document. Elections Ontario will redact a name and address from the copies given to candidates and shown publicly, but only where being listed would endanger a person’s life, health or security. Write to its Chief Privacy Officer.

Federal voters’ lists

Federal voters’ lists are not public. They go to members of Parliament, registered parties and candidates, and to provincial agencies under data-sharing agreements.

How a scammer got your name and number in the first place is under where your details came from.

Use a different password for every account

Use a password manager. It makes and remembers a different password for each account, so one leaked password opens one account, not all of them.

When one company is breached, the stolen username and password get tried on other services. Get Cyber Safe, the federal public-awareness program, calls that credential stuffing.