Despite taking a dip in 2013-2014, incidents of identity fraud in Halifax and the rest of Nova Scotia may go up again due to a spate of government breaches.
However, figures from Statistics Canada show that cases of identity fraud are increasing across the country.
In 2010, there were 6,188 incidents of identity fraud. Four years later, there were 10,606 — a 71 per cent increase.
Identity fraud is the unauthorized use of personal information in order to open bank accounts and credit lines, potentially to fund more criminal activities. Identity theft refers to the preparatory work of acquiring someone else’s personal information without their consent.
To learn more about identity fraud, watch the video below.
Halifax and the rest of Nova Scotia are not following this national trend, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t reason for concern.
They both had a spike in cases in 2012 which can be linked to a similar increase in reporting identity fraud to the police. According to a Statistics Canada report in 2012, there was a five per cent increase from 2011 of reporting identity fraud cases to the authorities.
As for the decrease in 2013 and 2014, two high-profile cases as well as greater awareness campaigns from the Nova Scotia RCMP at the time may have made citizens more vigilant when it comes to protecting their personal information.
But what about 2015? Looking at data regarding government breaches may hold the answer.
This past year, there were 5,670 privacy breaches within the federal government, most of them coming from the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA).
Like identity fraud, the number of privacy breaches within the government is growing. There were 5,237 privacy breaches in 2014 and 3,763 breaches in 2013, according to figures provided to Parliament.
With sensitive financial information disclosed, people are then vulnerable to criminals looking to extort money.
“Everybody is vulnerable,” said senior fraud specialist with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Daniel Williams. “There isn’t a database that can’t be hacked. Database breaches are being reported almost daily.”
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) is the central body that handles information related to mass marketing fraud for consumers, businesses, government, and law enforcement.
Specialists like Williams with CAFC will spend a significant amount of time and resources investigating the connection between privacy breaches and identity fraud. “Scamming, phishing emails will go out,” Williams said. “You get a refund from CRA but it’s going to the bad guys and what they really want is your credit card information.”
Phishing refers to using the likeness of a trustworthy institution to acquire personal information without authorization.
In Nova Scotia alone, there were likely around “10 significant privacy breaches in 2015 and possibly as many as 154 breaches in total,” according to the 2015 Annual Report from the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner.
While the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) could not provide numbers of identity fraud incidents in 2015-2016, it still tries its best to publicize incidents of identity fraud to keep citizens aware.
“We put out advisories to the public with respect to the different scams going on,” said Const. Dianne Woodworth. “Almost as soon as we hear about it, we put it out there.”
This involves using social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter to notify citizens as well as contacting the media as soon as possible.
Even though the annual report from CAFC has yet to be released, Williams said that the numbers for identity fraud for 2015 as well as 2016 are consistent with growth from years past. “We usually end up seeing the same type of numbers,” he said. “We may start to see more numbers come in.”
Read the 2015 Annual Report by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Nova Scotia