Kitchener-Waterloo in south-western Ontario may be home to technology firms like Blackberry Ltd., but it’s also become the centre for a particular brand of cyber crime: identity theft. Statistics Canada data indicates identity theft rates per 100,000 residents jumped between the years 2010-2013, with 2014 being the highest so far.
The Criminal Code defines identity theft “as obtaining and possessing identity information with the intent to use the information deceptively, dishonestly or fraudulently in the commission of a crime.” This could range from impersonating someone to open a bank account to using stolen credentials to purchase goods.
We leave a digital trail everywhere we go. From Facebook logins to the banking apps on our smart phones, criminals are always looking for a weak link in the security chain. Stories of hacking scandals, privacy breaches, and technology firms releasing security patches for their devices have become all too commonplace.
Margaret Gloade, a spokesperson for the Waterloo Regional Police Service, says a major investigation by the fraud division last year is the reason why the rate for 2014 seems higher than previous years. “It resulted in an arrest,” she says. “It’s also indicative of the large number of victims involved.”
Gloade says anytime a police service decides to dedicate more resources to a particular issue, it can result in an uptick in the statistics. “It’s reflective of police priorities sometimes,” she says. “The community’s willingness to report these crimes can also influence the numbers.”
Other identity theft trends in the Kitchener-Waterloo region also have police looking at the payday loan sector. “Our fraud investigators are also finding people are using compromised IDs to get online loans from companies like money-lending businesses,” she says. “It’s still quite easy to do this.”
But how do criminals get a hold of people’s identities? What’s the source?
Professor Tim Richardson of the University of Toronto says it’s sometimes simple carelessness. “Sometimes business will donate computers to a charity or similar organization, and they forget to properly wipe the hard drives,” he says. Those thousands of records can then be easily retrieved and sold to other criminals on the Internet. “They’ll go into chat rooms and trade the data,” he says.
Another way fraudsters steal people’s data is through retail stores. Compromised employees with access to customer data might try to sell the information on the Internet.
However, Richardson says it’s usually a time-consuming process so the criminals will work in groups of three or four. “A lot of the time it’s a borderless crime – it’s hard to determine where these guys are operating.”
While it may appear the Kitchener-Waterloo region is number one in Ontario for identity theft, further analysis of the national data shows Ontario is actually in the middle of the pack when it comes to these crimes. From 2010-2014, the province placed about eighth in Canada, with Quebec and Alberta placing first and second respectively. The province with the lowest rate was Newfoundland and Labrador.
Still, the problem of identity theft is big enough to warrant having it’s own government clearing-house. Daniel Williams of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says identity theft “is usually beyond the everyday consumer’s control.”
“It’s the biggest type of fraud Canadians face,” he says. “Millions [of dollars] are lost every year.”
Williams says there is a lot Canadians can do to minimize the fallout should they become a victim. “Why make it easy for a criminal to go through your garbage?” he says. “ Shred important documents.” Williams also says it’s important to monitor the activity on credit and bank statements. You should also check your credit rating with Equifax and TransUnion – the two main credit agencies in Canada – at least once year. Any unusual activity should be reported immediately. “Should it happen, it’s important to get ahead of it as soon as possible,” he says. “Don’t put it off – deal with it right away.”
Williams adds consumers are not in charge of how institutions guard their systems. Nothing is ever 100 per cent secure. “Hackers have even gotten into the Pentagon,” referring to the incident this past summer when a group of alleged Russian hackers stole almost 4,000 documents from military computers.
The bottom line is that it’s important to remain vigilant about your personal data. “It’s easier for criminals to copy identities rather than create them,” he says. “It’s important to keep on top of these things everyday.”