Information & Ethics Committee on April 3rd, 2014

[Supt Jean Cormier]

Certainly.

That is important and at the same time, it is a huge challenge for law enforcement because when we go from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, sometime other jurisdictions have different laws than we may have here domestically, so it's not allowing us to take the same action or certain action we'd like to take to prevent it.

It's important but it's one of our biggest challenges at the same time.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Patricia Davidson]

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Mr. Angus.

We'll now go to Ms. O'Neill Gordon, for five minutes, please.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

I want to thank the witnesses for being here today.

Your presentation today is certainly very valuable and makes us think of all the many mistakes that we make along the way, that we don't cover our tracks, especially when it comes to banking machines. We all go to banking machines. What would bring this about? Is there one main reason someone could get into it and take your money? What's a common mistake?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

I will turn it over to Inspector Miller to answer.

[Inspector Cameron Miller, Federal Coordination Centers, Domestic, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Madam Chair, one of the main methodologies of obtaining information from bank machines is something called skimming. There could be a false insert placed into the bank machine where people actually key their numbers into what they think is a legitimate machine and it processes it but the data is being captured.

You'll notice on bank machines today, there's a little bit of a shield over the PIN pad to protect your PIN, your personal identification number. People in the past have installed cameras in the vestibules where the bank machines are so they could watch and record you punching in your PIN and the magnetic strip at the same time would be compromised by the skimming machine.

At the end of the day or in the morning before the bank would open, the criminals would go back, remove the insert and then download all the information in the video, getting multiple PINs and multiple magnetic strips, and then they will upload them onto other ones. They compromise multiple cards, create them in a factory-type setting, and then attempt to bleed as many accounts as they can.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

That's very scary, but anyway it's great information to have on hand.

You mentioned, Mr. Cormier, about education on how to protect one's identity is everyone's responsibility. What are some means or ways that individuals can reach out to educate themselves about identity theft? I guess I have a lot to learn.

[Supt Jean Cormier]

There are different methods for a consumer or individual to protect themselves from identity theft. Obviously some publications are available out there. You could go to any police office and look at their bulletin board and they would have pamphlets on identity theft. Nowadays, the use the of the Internet is a good way as well.

We talk about the Internet being a scary place to get your personal information stolen but it is still a very good place to obtain information. For example, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has a good website that promotes certain ways to protect an individual from identity theft or other frauds.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

We know that the means is certainly rampant and becoming more and more rampant. Do you see any one reason that is causing this to rise?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

I believe it's because of the advance in technology that is making the world more accessible to anybody around the globe. Obviously it's a transnational type crime. The crimes that are being committed are not necessarily being committed by somebody in Canada. They can reach into Canada from anywhere in the world, and as a result, more people end up being victimized.

I don't have the comparison chart but I'm sure if we were to compare the number of Internet users to the increase in the number of victims, there would be some relation.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

That was going to be my next question. How much identity theft is paper-based in comparison to how much occurs online?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

I was asked that question in a different format earlier, and I do not, as I said, have the breakdown of the different types of identity theft.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Of course we all know this is quite a worry for many individuals. Do victims of identity theft ever become aware that they have been targeted, and how?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

Yes, when we are involved in an investigation we do make an effort to advise the victim, but certainly if it's not reported to us, sometimes the victim will not be aware of it.

At the same time, I would like to state that the cases reported to the CAFC, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, represent only 5% of the victims. That means that 95% of the victims either do not report to the police, or at least they do not report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Certainly, that's why the publicity about making everybody aware of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre being the central repository for this type of information is paramount as well, because the more we know about what's going on out there, the better we can develop strategies and tools to prevent those types of crimes.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Patricia Davidson]

Thank you very much, Ms. O'Neill Gordon.

I don't have any other names on the list.

Do you wish to speak, Mr. Andrews?

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Yes, I have a couple of questions.

Both of you can help to answer this. What pieces of information do criminals need or do people need to create an identity theft? How many pieces of your life do they need to know about? Do they need to know your address, your date of birth? How much information do they need to know to try to create an identity?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

I'm just going to touch on it, but I'll turn it over to Inspector Miller to answer as well to add to it.

Essentially there are a number of vital statistics or information that would be required.

[Insp Cameron Miller]

When you're going to create an identity, obviously the more information you have, the better. If you can start off with something along the lines of a breeder document, which is a source document such as a passport or a birth certificate, you can go from there.

If you want to create a synthetic identity, you can start with something as little as a name. From there you can start to build your identity and decide how old you want this person to be, and then you can create a birth certificate and you can start creating false documents and forge them. Using false and fraudulent documents, the synthetic identity can go on to create further documents from there.

To answer the question, you can start off with as little or as much as you want. The more you have, the better and the easier it is.

However, with methods of production today you can start off with pretty much nothing other than a name, an identity, and an age group range in your head.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

It could be a fictional name. It doesn't have to be an actual person.

[Insp Cameron Miller]

Yes, one of the things with a synthetic identity is that it's not a real person, so the name could be John Doe or Jane Doe, as you choose, and from there you build up Mr. Doe's or Mrs. Doe's characteristics, where they choose to live, at 123 Any Street, in any town, anywhere.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Currie, how do you see this online through mass marketing and such? Is it more synthetic or are individual consumers having their identity stolen?

[Morgan Currie]

Well of course the criminals become more sophisticated and under-reporting is a big problem for us. So we try to capture, through use of a credit card. We create fake identities as well to try to attract this type of behaviour. We try to subscribe to something to see if there is any fraudulent activity out there.

Tom can help me with this and will probably be a bit more precise. Whenever there is a situation where you're buying something or there is a free trial offer and you're submitting credit card information, you're immediately at risk of being upsold products that you had never even heard of, and then having difficulty cancelling that service before you're being charged hundreds of dollars. That fits into our law as a serious deceptive practice.

[Thomas Steen]

We've recently had several cases in which that occurs. A product is offered on a free trial basis—just pay a few dollars, maybe $3 or $4, for shipping and handling—and it is paid for by a credit card. Buried in the terms and conditions where it is very difficult to locate and read, or understand the terms, the consumer in fact is agreeing to a purchase plan of $80 a month or something like that for that product. Worse, two other products might kick in that are completely unrelated and that appear on the consumer's credit card statement under completely different descriptor names.

As Mr. Currie has stated, it's really difficult to get out of those traps, because the phone numbers provided go to call centres that often don't answer the calls. You get a major runaround telling you to call another number. Often, the only recourse for consumers is to call their credit card company and cancel the card, and it's very difficult to get their money back.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Patricia Davidson]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our presenters today.

We've certainly heard some extremely interesting information, scary information in some aspects, but we appreciate the time you've taken.

Since we have no more witnesses, I will declare the meeting adjourned.