You may never know how it happened. Someone rifles through your mail and finds a bank or credit card statement. Or, the person behind you at a hotel check-in counter reads your reservation slip over your shoulder; memorizing your name, home address, credit card number, and employer.
Months later, as you’re trying to renew your mortgage, a routine credit report shows you are waist-deep in debt. There are purchases and loans you’ve never heard of. Cheques have been bounced against accounts you didn’t know you had.
You are now the victim of identity theft – one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada.
Chartered Accountant Joe Barron is a director in the audit department at Scotiabank in Toronto, and very familiar with cyber-crooks and the devastation they can cause.
“Step one is to call your bank or banks right away and complete an identity theft statement,” Joe says. “Tell them you did not create the debts or charges. Then send the complete statement and copies of all the required documents to each financial institution, credit card issuer or company that gave the thief unauthorized credit or money.”
Be prepared to spend some time on the phone and completing paper work. Joe also recommends that you call your local police department and report the incident. Then, get in touch with Canada’s national credit reporting agencies, Trans Union Canada and Equifax Canada. Have each send your credit report to you, and ask about having a fraud alert placed on your file.
Were any government-issued documents or identity cards lost or stolen? If yes, contact each department, agency or ministry to report the incident and have your cards replaced.
Finally, Joe suggests that you call PhoneBusters at 1-888-495-8501. This national anti-fraud call centre is operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It gathers information and intelligence about identity theft and provides advice and assistance to identity-theft victims.
“If you are a business owner, identity theft can operate on an entirely different level,” says Bruce Roher, CA.IFA, an investigative forensic accountant and president of Fuller Landau Valuations Inc. in Toronto.
“Some business owners collect significant amounts of personal information about both clients and staff,” he says. “They have an obligation to keep it safe and protected.”
“First,” Bruce recommends, “Businesses should take inventory of the data they have, and determine what is required to meet financial and government requirements for safe record-keeping.
“Pay attention to the people in your company who have access to the data,” he says. “Know what steps they take to ensure it is not compromised. Anything sensitive, like payroll details or personal information, must be kept locked or password-protected to ensure it’s not lost or stolen.
“Invest in whatever tools or professional help you need to ensure your computer system is properly protected with anti-spyware, firewalls and passwords,” Bruce advises. “You are responsible for meeting the statutory requirements for protecting sensitive information. Failure to do so can be far more costly than properly safeguarding it.”
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario is the qualifying and regulatory body of Ontario’s 33,000 Chartered Accountants and 5,000 CA students. Since 1879, the Institute has protected the public interest through the CA profession’s high standards of qualification and the enforcement of its rules of professional conduct. The Institute works in partnership with the other provincial Institutes of Chartered Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants to provide national standards and programs that are used as examples around the world. </em>
