Waterloo Regional Police Service has stepped up its battle against identity fraud leading to an increase in arrests from 2012 to 2014.

Rates of identity fraud have been on the rise since 2012 in Waterloo Region. There were 73 reported incidents per 100,000 people in the city in 2014, up from 52 in 2012. That’s compared to a rate of just 26 per 100,000 in 2014 provincially, according to Statistics Canada.

This was in part due to major arrests in an identity fraud investigation, says Margaret Gloade, a research analyst planner with the WRPS.

“There have been some pretty major investigations going on which have caused those numbers to increase,” said Gloade.

Residents of the area are feeling the fear in their regular lives says Melissa Nagel, a Cambridge local.

“It happens everywhere in this area,” said Nagel. “It actually is pretty bad, I won’t even use my debit card in this area because I’m scared of identity fraud.”

Nagel has been a victim of identity fraud twice before.

“The first time I was out shopping at the Gap and my card got declined and I went ‘pardon me,’ and I called the bank. But the second time, they called me,” said Nagel.

However, there were no answers for her after she had her credit cards cancelled.

“I really had no idea where they could have gotten my information, which is the scary part.”

Although the numbers for 2015 have not been released yet the region is seeing a lot of similarities from 2014, says Detective Constable John Costa, who is with the investigation services fraud unit for WRPS.

“We had a couple of major investigations both last year and this year into fraud cases that uncovered an extremely significant number of victims who had their identities compromised,” said Costa.

Costa also noted the increase in the rate of identity fraud is due to an increase in online activity.

“The other thing we’ve noticed with respect to organized crime is that various organized crime groups are turning more towards the Internet to commit an array of frauds,” said Costa.

Alison Haddaway, also a Cambridge resident, had her and her husband’s identities stolen to buy cellphones on two different occasions. She expressed anger that people could do this and create problems for her in the future without getting caught.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you and you kind of get mad that how can a person just walk in and take your identity,” said Haddaway.

Statistics Canada data is based on reported incidents, and therefore unreported incidents are exempt from analysis. The reason the rates are so much higher in Waterloo Region as opposed to the rest of the province might be because of good police work, notes Gloade.

“It also may mean that our community has confidence in our service and we as a service have decided to put priorities for this area, which drives up the number as well,” said Gloade.

Haddaway said rather than confidence it should be creating more consciousness for residents.

“I think it should heighten our awareness, we’ve got to know what’s going on in our own city,” said Haddaway.