Thank you, Kevin.
Hi. I'm Jim Dorey. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Identity Theft Support Centre.
There are three main streams that the Canadian Identity Theft Support Centre is currently working on. One is victim support. That's the key one that we're speaking to. The second one is education and prevention, which we've heard a lot about. The third one is research and data collection.
In terms of victim support, the core resources that we've developed over the last three years are fact sheets to help people; scripts, so they can actually call separate companies with set scripts and just insert their name to streamline the process; different forms; sample letters; contact lists; a workbook; and a standardized affidavit form created by Pippa Lawson directly for us but now used at law agencies across Canada. The thing that we are most proud of is our “Victim Toolkit”. The victim tool kit has all these forms in the one booklet and can actually take someone from beginning to end in order for them to regain their identity.
All these resources are found online on our website. That's good for some people. Some people are very adept and can just jump on the website and follow the forms, and it helps them. Most people need someone to talk to, as Kevin was saying, as they are trying to unravel this puzzle. What we've set up is a 1-800 number with a call centre, and people are able to call the call centre and actually get a human, caring voice on the other end of the line.
When someone does call the 1-800 number, they're most likely to be frustrated, confused, and very overwhelmed. That's why we need people who are knowledgeable and able to streamline this process quickly for them. All of the people who we work with or who answer calls have been trained either by me, who was trained down in San Diego by the Identity Theft Resource Center there, the group that's been doing this for 20 years....
What we do is to talk them down. They're always very excited and frustrated. Once the individual is in a little bit more of a calm state, we get into our five-step process to help determine this, and we present them with materials, resources, and support to help them regain their identity. In more severe cases, we've also been able to go out and establish different partnerships across Canada. One partnership would be with a group like Equifax. We've met the vice-president there and he's given me their direct line, so in deeper cases where we're having trouble with a client who is trying to figure out some of their credit rating information, I can just make a direct call to the VP and he'll get the information to us.
Of course, we don't just focus on victim support. Because identity theft is a billion-dollar-plus expense to Canadians, the second core aspect of our mission is to assist Canadians in reducing and preventing the risk of identity theft. To help Canadians reduce and prevent identity theft, we've created four different manuals: one for youth, one for seniors, one for the general public, and one specifically geared to online situations. They're in-depth manuals and are all found on the website. I won't go into detail, because I know we're a little short on time today.
We've also created a mobile education unit. This mobile education unit is used at public events, special engagements, and conferences.
Finally, we're currently developing a new education and outreach program. This is very interesting. This is currently focused on two specifically targeted demographics in Canada that are being affected increasingly by the bad effects of identity theft. The first program is going to be an outreach program directed towards youth. The second one is going to be an outreach program directed towards seniors.
With the rise of technology and social media, youth today are very comfortable handing over their personal information on sites like Instagram, Facebook, etc., so more education is needed to help our youth here understand the importance of holding their information a little bit tighter.
For our seniors program, we are currently developing it in partnership with CARP and the director of community development there, Anthony Quinn. It is also important, if not as important as the youth program. Seniors across Canada, some who are savvy with regard to technology and some who are not as savvy, are being hit directly with a number of scams in this day and age, and this is only going to grow.
The third core stream of the Canadian Identity Theft Support Centre is its work with research and data collection. At this point, I'm going to turn it back to Kevin to finish this up.
Thank you very much.