Any reason to be cautious of giving personal info to corporate fraud departments?
I can't address the psychology of trust involved in your question, but here are some common sense guidelines for dealing with your issue. Make sure you know who you are talking to.  Call the company you need to speak to via a publicly available phone number. An email or something you got in a letter might be from a different source.  If you use a website, you should be sure you are on the correct website. Keep careful records.  Make good notes of each phone call and keep all emails and letters forever. Note the time, name and/or ID of the person you spoke to and numbers called in addition to keeping notes on what actions should be done.  Keep your faxing transmission receipts and shipping tracking numbers too. If you are nervous, ask them why they want the info.  The fraud department should be able to explain it to you.  For example, they probably want your social because that is how your credit report is identified.  If they are going to fix a credit report, they will need a social.  It is doubtful they would have a good explanation why they need your mother's maiden name. Ask for secure transmission, or confirm they have it.  Postal mail isn't so secure, but I'll go out on a limb and say most fax machines today are not really fax machines, but software that deals in PDFs.  At some point you will have to realize you will have to transmit something.  No method is perfect, but you can limit your exposure. Help them do their jobs.  If you are (understandably) nervous, consider their motivations: corporate profit.  BUT that could very well mean not running afoul of the law and (with any luck) treating customers the best way they know to earn business.  If you stymy the fraud department, how can they help you? If the ID theft was serious enough, document your issue for future law enforcement so you getting pulled over for speeding doesn't result in you going to jail for whatever crime the other person did.  Perhaps the fraud department you are dealing with can assist there. Finally, while you work with fraud departments to clear up your name and account, work on the other end to limit future damage.  Freeze your credit.  See if you bank or credit card have monitoring.  Use CreditKarma.com or a similar if you cannot find a free service.  (Please don't ever pay for credit monitoring.)
"I wish colleges would stop letting incoming freshmen pick majors. Almost no one ends up studying what they thought they would at first.  I also went to a state school when I couldn't afford the ""elite"" universities. I started as an English major, went through 3 other majors before settling on finance, and now I work for a top corporate/investment bank. Just try out some classes in different departments. See what you like and where you excel, and let the jobs come later.  If you're set on finance though, you need to realize that coming from a ""non-target"" school (I hate that term), it's all about building your network. Yes, you're at a disadvantage because you didn't go to Harvard. But you can find a way to meet and make connections with people that will help you way more than any degree.  You're in Chicago, easily one of the top 5 cities in the country for finance...are you trying to tell me that no commodities firms recruit from UIC? Be personable, be persistent, and be damn good at math/statistics/Excel, and you'll have no problem finding a job in finance." IANAL (and nor am I an accountant), so I can't give a definitive answer as to legality, but AFAIK, what you propose is legal.  But what's the benefit?  Avoiding corporation tax? It's simplistic – and costly – to think in terms like that. You need to run the numbers for different scenarios, and make a plan.  You can end up ahead of the game precisely by choosing to pay some corporate tax each year. Really! Read on. One of the many reasons that self-employed Canadians sometimes opt for a corporate structure over being a sole proprietor is to be able to not pay themselves everything the company earns each year. This is especially important when a business has some really good years, and others, meh.  Using the corporation to retain earnings can be more tax effective. Example: Imagine your corporation earns, net of accounting & other non-tax costs except for your draws, $120,000/year for 5 years, and $0 in year 6.  Assume the business is your only source of income for those 6 years.  Would you rather: Pay yourself the entire $120,000/yr in years 1-5, then $0 in year 6 (living off personal savings you hopefully accumulated earlier), subjecting the $120,000/yr to personal income tax only, leaving nothing in the corporation to be taxed? Very roughly speaking, assuming tax rates & brackets are level from year to year, and using this calculator (which simplifies certain things), then in Ontario, then you'd net ~$84,878/yr for years 1-5, and $0 in year 6. Overall, you realized $424,390. Drawing the income in this manner, the average tax rate on the $600,000 was 29.26%. vs. Pay yourself only $100,000/yr in years 1-5, leaving $20,000/yr subject to corporation tax. Assuming a 15.5% combined federal/provincial corporate tax rate (includes the small business deduction), then the corp. is left with $16,900/yr to add to retained earnings in years 1-5. In year 6, the corp. has $84,500 in retained earnings to be distributed to you, the sole owner, as a dividend (of the non-eligible kind.) Again, very roughly speaking, you'd personally net $73,560/yr in years 1-5, and then on the $84,500 dividend in year 6, you'd net $73,658.  Overall, you realized $441,458.  Drawing the income in this manner, the average tax rate on the $600K was 26.42%. i.e. Scenario 2, which spreads the income out over the six years, saved 2.84% in tax, or $14,400. Smoothing out your income is also a prudent thing to do. Would you rather find yourself in year 6, having no clients and no revenue, with nothing left to draw on? Or would you rather the company had saved money from the good years to pay you in the lean one? "OK, it's a bit of a minefield but here goes! You only pay corporation tax in the UK on any profit made, so your ""salary"" would not be classed as part of the profit, so in the example you give you would only pay corporation tax on £4k less your ""salary"" ie £3,200 so profit on the £800 remaining gross profit. You don't say if your figures are monthly, annual etc, but you only pay income tax if you earn over £11.5k in any given tax year, the rates increase as your income does, check here:  https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates You may have a different tax code, you would need to check that with HMRC but the link gives the ""default"" position which is correct for most people. https://www.itcontracting.com/limited-company-dividends/ If the figures you give are monthly then I would consult an accountant as they are likely to save you more than they will charge for their services. You will probably find it is most tax efficient to pay yourself a dividend from the company's profits but check with an accountant. More info: https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company/taking-money-out-of-a-limited-company" There are certain standards that modern checks need to meet. These aren't required by law, but banks today generally insist on them. If you are able to meet these standards and print your own checks at home, you are allowed to do so. One way this is commonly done is with purchased check blanks and check printing software. Office supply stores sell check blanks that fit into standard computer printers. This check paper includes the necessary security features of checks, and using the check printing software, you can print your personal information, including your name & address, your bank's name and address, and your account numbers. The account numbers on the bottom of the checks are called the MICR code, which stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Normally, these numbers were printed with special magnetic ink, which was used in automated check reading machines. Checks that you purchase from your bank still use magnetic ink; however, modern check readers are optical, and don't require magnetic ink. So you should be able to print checks with your printer using standard ink/toner, and not have a problem. Without purpose-specific check printing software, you could still buy blank check paper from the store, and with a little trial-and-error you could print using Excel.  The biggest challenge with doing this would be printing the MICR code: you would probably need to install an MICR font on your computer and play around with the size and location until you get it where you want it.  Doing a little Googling, I see that there are some check printing Excel templates out there, but I haven't tried any of these, and it is unclear to me whether they actually print the MICR, or whether they assume that you have blank checks with the MICR account number and check numbers already printed. Without purchasing blank check paper, you won't have any of the security features, such as microprinting, watermarks, erasure protection, anti-photocopying background, etc.  As you mentioned, if you are depositing checks via mobile phone app, as some banks now allow, none of these security features are doing any good.  The problem, however, is that you are not writing checks for yourself; you are writing checks to other people, and you have no way of knowing whether or not their banks are going to give them trouble with your checks.  There is enough check fraud out there that lots of bank tellers are very cautious.  I recommend sticking with check paper that has the security features because, if nothing else, it will make your check look more like a real check. Just FYI for the benefit of future users. Haven't been paid yet nor have I paid but some interesting facts. I decided to sign the contract with the person who approached me. The contract seemed harmless whereby I only transfer money once I retrieve the funds. Thanks to your comments here I also understood that I must make sure the funds really cleared in my account and can never be cancelled before I transfer anything.  He gave me the information of the check that matched my previous employer and made sense as it was a check issues just after I had left my job and the state. I did not used the contact details he provided me, but rather found the direct contact details of the go to person in my last institution and contacted them.  I still haven't been able to reclaim the funds, but that is due to internal problems between the state comptroller and my institution. Will come back to update if I am ever successful, but the bottom line is that it is probably not a scam. I am waiting for the final resolution of the case before I post the name of the company which approached me (if it is at all OK per the discussion board rules) I can ONLY WISH this would happen to me.  Get every scrap of information that you can. DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT..and then get a nice sleazy lawyer to sue the collector AND your employer if they leaked anything... Plain and simple,  it's illegal and there are very nice protections in place for such. Aside from the fact that you could now get spam calls and mailings, nothing negative at all. With your account number, anyone can send you money (which you probably wouldn't mind), but otherwise, no access is possible. In Germany, every company and many people publish their account number, so they can receive payment. Every invoice contains address, phone number, and account numbers of the company that bills you, so you are able to send them money to pay the invoice. Nobody can access the money or details of your account with only the name and number; it needs your online login user id and password, or your (government issued) ID to do so. You don't need to worry at all. With Mint you are without a doubt telling a third party your username and password.  If mint gets compromised, or hires a bad actor, technically there isn't anything to stop shenanigans.  You simply must be vigilant and be aware of your rights and the legal protections you have against fraud. For all the technical expertise and careful security they put in place, we the customers have to know that there is not, nor will there ever be, a perfectly secure system. The trade off is what you can do for the increased risk.  And when taken into the picture of all the Other* ways you banking information is exposed, and how little you can do about it, mint.com is only a minor increase in risk in my opinion. *See paypal, a check's routing numbers, any e-commerce site you shop at, every bank that has an online facing system, your HR dept's direct deposit and every time you swipe your debit / credit card somewhere. These are all technically risks, some of which are beyond your control to change.  Short of keeping your money in your mattress you can't avoid risk.  (And then your mattress catches fire.)