Identity theft may soon become a little harder in Canada. At the moment, it is of course illegal to use someone else’s personal info to commit fraud. But the actual act of gathering the data is not against the law.
Police have found people with huge databases of personal information. However, the simple possession of such data is not a crime either, at the moment.
The Canadian government is hoping to change that, to make it a crime to possess someone else’s data.
The government proposes to make dumpster diving, looking over someone’s shoulder at bank machines (shoulder surfing), and duplicating debit cards, a crime. This would allow police to go after these criminals, and hopefully bring them to justice.
Phishing scams would also be included in the new laws, although this is much harder to enforce since most of it comes from foreign countries. Still, every little bit helps.
In Canada, losses from debit card fraud totalled $95 million last year. Reported credit card fraud was $291 million. That is not pocket change!
Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: => http://MyPCSecuritySite.com
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October 8, 2007 at 1:54 pm
[...] Mark Wilcox wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSyd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with … [...]
October 8, 2007 at 2:05 pm
[...] Mark Wilcox wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptSyd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with … [...]
October 8, 2007 at 2:14 pm
[...] wrote an interesting post today on ID Theft to Become More Difficult (Maybe)Here’s a quick [...]
October 8, 2007 at 11:31 pm
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptSyd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with … [...]
June 12, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Possession of someone elses data could lead to misuse. The crux of the problem though is people getting hold of others information. With greater technology such as phones, pda’s and computers the threat of identity theft is ever greater. Thats where using privacy filters and privacy screens help to prevent those would be criminals from even seeing what you have on your screen. Great post.