Chances are you, or someone you know, have been the victim of identity theft. Anyone who has had their identity stolen knows that apart from causing great anger and frustration, it is a serious and costly crime that is affecting more Canadians than ever before. Simply put, it’s a fraud in which one person pretends to be someone else in order to steal money or gain credit or other benefits. A fraudster could, for example, run up thousands of dollars in credit card expenses before it is realized. Worse yet, they might use your name to open bank accounts, order new credit cards or commit a crime, going undetected for months or even years.
Information from the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus estimates that identity theft may cost Canadian consumers, banks and credit card firms, stores and other businesses over $2 billion a year. In a period of ten months in 2008, more than 9000 Canadian victims of identity theft reported losses of more than $8 million to PhoneBusters, an anti-fraud call centre.
Our government is taking action to help combat the problems of identity theft and identity fraud, crimes which are growing quickly as advancing technologies assist criminals in making it easier than ever. New legislation introduced last month by my colleague the Hon. Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice, will give police the tools they need to act to stop this activity before the damage is done. Three new offences are being created, all with five-year maximum sentences.
The three offences include:
Before the introduction of this legislation, the use of identity information of another person was covered in the Criminal Code under offences such forgery. However identity theft - the steps involved in collecting, possessing or trafficking in personal information - was not properly covered by existing offences. Our new laws target the early stages of identity-related crime.
In addition, there’s a new power in the legislation. It would permit a court to order, as part of a sentence, that an offender be required to pay restitution to a victim of identity theft or identity fraud what it costs them to regain their identity through new cards, documents and credit history adjustments.
This legislation is crucial. You are entitled to have your identity and valuable information protected. At the same time it’s still important to continue to protect your personal and financial information by shredding important documents, never giving out personal information by phone, guarding your mail and closely checking your statements and credit reports.
Hon. Gerry Ritz is the Member of Parliament for Battlefords-Lloydminster www.gerryritzmp.ca