Canada

Quebec is the only province where consumers can freeze their credit — an easy way to protect against identity fraud by blocking access to your credit report, so fraudsters can't open credit card accounts or take out loans.

Credit freezes are "very useful and effective" says anti-fraud consultant Vanessa Iafolla, especially in the wake of a growing number of data breaches, like the recent Ticketmaster incident which exposed customers' credit card information.

"When you have this much access to personal data, identifiable information, fraudsters can very easily get at the necessary information to secure credit products. So a credit freeze basically puts up a moat," said Iafolla, from Anti-Fraud Intelligence Consulting, based in Halifax.

"And the reason why that is so deeply important when it comes to preventing fraud is that, by the time people usually figure out that their credit has been accessed, it's too late."