Letter from bank (Alterna) informing of a data breach of my personal info)

First make sure it's legit and not some scam. I would call the bank

hamon wrote: ↑ Hello,

I just got a letter from my bank stating my information may have been leaked, by mail they mention my sin and financial.. it’s very upsetting just curious is there anything I can do ? I mean I feel the bank should compensate or anything curious looking for advice

Assuming its legit, as mentioned above, you could ask the bank to compensate you by way of paying for some kind of credit monitoring service. e.g.

https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/persona ... -products/

May I ask which bank?

ElBorak wrote: ↑ Assuming its legit, as mentioned above, you could ask the bank to compensate you by way of paying for some kind of credit monitoring service. e.g.

https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/persona ... -products/

I be surprised if this haven't been offered already.

I was thinking the same, it’s legit it’s alterna, really upset.

Here a snip

hamon wrote: ↑ I was thinking the same, it’s legit it’s alterna, really upset.

Here a snip

Understand your frustration

If it's just mailing error, it might not cause too much harm. If you received a letter about another person including SIN, you probably just throw out

My guess would be the the T5 which has your SIN. Normally they don’t just send your SIN out back to you. So the letter label is different than the actual T5 recipient perhaps?

Once confirmed as not spam sign up for Credit Karma, Borrowell, Transunion, Equifax.

They all have free options where get alerted when new account and can put fraud alert or more on TU and EQ.

Some banks offer similar free services for new accounts.

Look at this also: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-soc ... ction.html

Yeah if you can find out exactly what happened, but I don't think you need to be worried. A mailing error just means that someone erroneously got your SIN. What are the chances that they would post it or do something malicious with it, or even know how? This is exactly the same as if you got a random T5 in the mail.

hamon wrote: ↑ Hello,

I just got a letter from my bank stating my information may have been leaked, by mail they mention my sin and financial.. it’s very upsetting just curious is there anything I can do ? I mean I feel the bank should compensate or anything curious looking for advice

That is upsetting. Normally my response to such posts is not nice but not this time. This is about SIN and bank has screwed up. Ask bank if they can give credit protection for year or two. If that helps but not sure what exactly can be done. I remember Home Depot has some problems and they offered some protection.

BMO had a class action lawsuit according to this google search.
https://www.bmosettlement.ca/

Those things take years.

They always take these things "seriously" but do nothing about it. It's like saying sorry without meaning it.

so what bank was it? i missed where someone mentioned the name?

Hi hamon, I’m from Alterna Savings. We would like to provide support for your concerns. Please call our Solution Center @ 1.877.560.0100; press 1 then ext. 6344 and a representative will get back to you as soon as possible. Our Solution Center is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST

I've never heard of this bank before. You might want to be extra cautious with banks you've never heard of just to be safe.

GoodFellaz wrote: ↑ I've never heard of this bank before. You might want to be extra cautious with banks you've never heard of just to be safe.

Alterna Savings and Alterna Bank (online version) are both legitimate financial institutions.
I have used them for years.

they may very well be very legitimate but that still does not mean I've heard of them or they are popular, they are relatively unheard of. Joe's Fish and Chips and banking could also be a great bank but does not mean people heard of him or his bank before.

GoodFellaz wrote: ↑ they may very well be very legitimate but that still does not mean I've heard of them or they are popular, they are relatively unheard of. Joe's Fish and Chips and banking could also be a great bank but does not mean people heard of him or his bank before.

"they are relatively unheard of", to you which does not mean they are sketchy.
It means you lack knowledge to make an informed decision on their credibility.
Good to be skeptical until you have the facts.

Fair enough, it also means they do not advertise as much as the other banks, plus if they're in Ottawa why would I research Ottawa banks when we live in Toronto?