:
Good morning, everyone. We'll call the meeting to order.
I welcome our witnesses for this morning's presentation.
We have with us from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Superintendent Jean Cormier, director, federal coordination centres, and Inspector Cameron Miller, federal coordination centres, domestic region.
From the Department of Industry, we have Thomas Steen, major case director and strategic policy adviser, Competition Bureau, fair business practices branch, and Mr. Morgan Currie, acting assistant deputy commissioner of the Competition Bureau, fair business practices branch, division C.
Without further ado, we will open it up to our witnesses for their opening statements, starting with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Go ahead, Mr. Cormier.
:
Good morning, Madam Chair, and honourable members of the committee. Thank you for inviting the RCMP to participate in today's proceedings.
l am accompanied by Inspector Cameron Miller, who is the officer in charge at RCMP National Headquarters. He is responsible for the oversight of the operations and administration of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, referred to as the CAFC.
[Translation]
The CAFC is a joint partnership between the Ontario Provincial Police, the Competition Bureau and the RCMP, and plays a crucial role in educating the public about mass-marketing fraud.
[English]
l am pleased to be accompanied by one of those partners, the Competition Bureau, represented by Mr. Morgan Currie, assistant deputy commissioner, fair business practices branch, and Mr. Thomas Steen, major case director and strategic policy adviser, fair practices branch as well.
[Translation]
I am pleased to have this opportunity to be joined by my colleagues here today and say a few words about the RCMP, our involvement in the CAFC and our role in addressing identity theft, along with our partners.
Identity theft is a serious matter with serious consequences.
[English]
Criminal groups exploit technological advancement to compromise personal information for illicit purposes. While identity theft is not new, the scope of the problem has grown substantially. Sophisticated groups are able to compromise entire computer networks, infect multiple individual computers, or design fraudulent websites to mine personal data on a massive scale.
Millions of personal records can be obtained through one targeted cyberattack. Identity theft has evolved from impersonating one or another person to the creation of totally synthetic identities. Criminals utilize personal information stolen from various individuals to obtain legitimate identification in a fabricated name, a synthetic identity, that is. Synthetic identities can then be utilized for a number of illicit purposes such as fraud, industrial espionage, money laundering, and terrorist financing.
[Translation]
Over the past decade, the unprecedented rise in crime associated with personal identity information has made this type of crime a primary concern for Canadians.
[English]
The impact of identity crime on victims is unlike that of other crimes. An individual's identity is the basis of almost every aspect of modern life, and when it is compromised, victims often suffer long-term consequences. Apart from economic or financial losses, there is often damage to reputation, loss of access to credit and other services, and in some cases, victims even face criminal prosecution for acts committed by others utilizing their names.
Another key concern is the increased involvement of organized crime groups in identity crime. These groups operate across national and international borders to evade detection and prosecution by law enforcement.
Consequently, identity crime is often multi-jurisdictional, crossing municipal and provincial boundaries. Globalization and the absence of cyberborders means that many cases have international links and implications, making it that much more complex.
[Translation]
In 2010, the Government of Canada recognized the growing seriousness of identity crime by amending the Criminal Code with the addition of offences specific to identity crime. In 2012, the RCMP, in consultation with private and public sector stakeholders, developed its national identity crime strategy.
[English]
To put the scale of the problem into context, consider the following.
In 2013, the RCMP opened 3,411 occurrences related to identity theft and fraud. For the same year, Norton, operated by Symantec, a security, storage, and system management solution provider, estimated that $113 billion was lost globally to cybercrime and that Canada's share was approximately $3 billion. Over 24,000 victims of identity crime contacted the CAFC to report losses in that same year, to a total of $11 million.
In 2012, Symantec reported that an average of 604,826 identities were stolen per data breach, which means over 93 million identities were exposed. An example of that is the targeted attack on Target Corporation which resulted in the payment card information of 100 million customers being compromised.
These figures highlight the importance for law enforcement to work collaboratively with domestic and international partners to prevent, detect, and pursue those who engage in such activities.
[Translation]
We believe that information sharing between the different domestic partners, Government of Canada departments and the RCMP, as it relates to preventing identity theft, is crucial to addressing the problem.
[English]
The aim is to educate, prevent, detect, and deter such criminal activity as well as to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of those involved in such criminal activity.
[Translation]
Identity theft directly impacts individuals, businesses, communities, Government of Canada and international reputations.
[English]
Education on how to protect one's identity is everyone's responsibility.
[Translation]
Although many Canadians are now aware of the different methods utilized by criminals to steal their personal information, continued vigilance is paramount.
[English]
The RCMP is committed to protecting Canadians' financial well-being by continuing to contribute to efforts to detect and deter identity theft and the use of victims' identity to perpetrate fraud.
[Translation]
I thank you for your interest on this concern.
We look forward to answering your questions.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair, for the invitation to speak to you today about identity theft.
My name is Morgan Currie and I am an assistant deputy commissioner in the fair business practices branch, which is an enforcement branch of the Competition Bureau part of Industry Canada.
I am accompanied by my colleague, Mr. Thomas Steen, major case director and strategic policy adviser in the fair business practices branch. Mr. Steen established and is responsible for overseeing the bureau's enforcement regime to counter mass marketing fraud, or MMF, which we're here to discuss today. We're also very pleased to be here today with our partner, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is represented by Superintendent Cormier and Inspector Miller.
I will begin my remarks by describing the mandate and role of the Competition Bureau. Then I will discuss our enforcement work to combat mass marketing fraud. Finally, I will touch upon partnerships that the bureau is involved in that help strengthen enforcement initiatives in the area of mass marketing fraud.
[Translation]
The Competition Bureau, as an independent law enforcement agency, ensures that Canadian businesses and consumers prosper in a competitive and innovative marketplace. Headed by the Commissioner of Competition, the bureau is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (except as it relates to food), the Textile Labelling Act and the Precious Metals Marking Act.
The basic operating assumption of the Competition Bureau is that competition is good for both businesses and consumers.
[English]
The bureau will also be responsible for enforcing parts of Canada's anti-spam legislation when that law comes into force on July 1, 2014, together with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Through this legislation the bureau will be able to more effectively address false or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices in the electronic marketplace, including false or misleading sender or subject matter information, electronic messages, and locator information such as URLs and metadata.
The bureau promotes truth in advertising in the marketplace by discouraging deceptive business practices and by encouraging the provision of sufficient information to enable informed consumer choice. False or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices can have serious economic consequences for Canadians, especially when directed towards large audiences or when they take place over a long period of time. They can affect both consumers and businesses that are engaging in honest promotional efforts.
The Competition Act contains criminal and civil provisions to address false or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices in promoting the supply or use of a product or any business interest. Under the criminal provisions, the general provision prohibits all materially false or misleading representations made knowingly or recklessly. Other provisions specifically prohibit deceptive telemarketing, deceptive notices of winning a prize, double ticketing, and schemes of pyramid selling.
Identify theft, as the RCMP has described it, refers to the preparatory stage of acquiring and collecting someone else's personal information for criminal purposes. There are several Criminal Code provisions that address fraudulent conduct. The Competition Bureau's mandate in the mass marketing fraud realm relates to conduct that affects competition and to ensuring consumers have the information required to make informed purchasing decisions. Offences such as identity theft and frauds where no product or business interest are promoted do not fall under the bureau's mandate.
Mass marketing fraud is fraud committed via mass communication media using the Internet, the mail, or the telephone. Costing the Canadian economy $10 billion per year, it is an increasingly global criminal threat.
It has a substantial negative effect on economies and markets by undermining consumer trust and confidence in legitimate businesses. Large-scale criminal mass marketing fraud operations are present in Canada and other countries around the world.
Operators of mass marketing fraud schemes are highly adaptive, rapidly changing their methods and techniques to reduce the risks of law enforcement detection and investigation and to respond to consumer and business awareness of their current methods.
Identity theft and money laundering continue to be critical components of various mass marketing fraud schemes. Law enforcement agencies are witnessing an increasing exploitation of fraud victims to receive and launder victim funds or to receive and disburse counterfeit financial instruments. While most mass marketing fraud schemes are non-violent in nature, law enforcement intelligence indicates that some groups that engage in fraud employ threats and coercive tactics against uncooperative victims, rival groups, and their own group members.
The bureau often investigates large-scale mass marketing fraud crimes which have resulted in consumer losses of up to $500 million. The types of MMF cases that the bureau investigates include: scams targeting small and medium-sized businesses, such as directory and office supply scams; digital economy cases in which important information is buried in the terms and conditions; job opportunity scams; and health-related scams.
To effectively counter the threat of mass marketing fraud, investigative law enforcement and regulatory authorities in multiple countries have been: working together to gather and share intelligence on MMF schemes and how to disrupt them; increasing public awareness and education programs to help individuals and businesses recognize these schemes and avoid losses; developing measures to more promptly identify and support victims of mass marketing fraud schemes; and developing and expanding coordinated efforts among law enforcement agencies to fight MMF schemes.
To illustrate our collaboration, the bureau is a member of the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group and the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network.
The bureau also plays a central role in the seven MMF Canada-U.S. law enforcement partnerships across the country of which the bureau is a founding member. Established in the 1990s to combat deceptive telemarketing, these partnerships now include Canadian and U.S. law enforcement agencies that work together to enforce laws dealing with mass marketing fraud. This collaboration has resulted in hundreds of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which the bureau jointly manages along with the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police, is the hub of the national network of MMF partnerships. It provides intelligence and complainant information to law enforcement partners on a wide range of MMF crimes.
In addition, the CAFC, along with the bureau and the bureau's law enforcement and private sector partners, educates consumers on how to recognize, report, and stop various forms of MMF. In fact, the partners collectively promote fraud awareness during fraud prevention month, which takes place in March.
In conclusion, Madam Chair and members of the committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to speak about the work the bureau is doing to combat mass marketing fraud. We recognize that this is a global problem and accordingly one that requires a coordinated approach. The bureau will continue to work together with law enforcement agencies across the globe to defend consumers against this threat.
Thank you. We look forward to your questions.
My colleague, Mr. Currie, stated four examples of the types of mass marketing fraud the bureau handles.
The first category covers scams targeted at generally small or medium-sized business, whether they're in or outside of Canada. If the perpetrators are in Canada but target people outside of Canada, the act applies to that, as well as to situations when the victims are in Canada.
Of those scams targeting businesses, a typical one is the directory scam. This is committed either by telemarketing or by fax. There's always an Internet aspect to these scams as well. Generally what they try to do is they use what we refer to as the assumed sales technique, where they call someone at a business—actually it could be an organization, a charity, a church, a government agency, anybody that runs an office, really—and they try to leave the impression with them that they've already bought this directory every year and they're just calling to renew their listing and update their information. They sometimes try to use names similar to the Yellow Pages group, or companies such as that. People don't realize that they're committing to a payment, whether it's over the phone, or sometimes they send facsimiles to companies saying to update their information, sign the form, and send it back. Buried in fine print, they're committing themselves to $1,500 a year to be listed in the directory.
There is a product, per se, usually a directory listing on the Internet, but it's not accessible. For instance, for any commercial purpose to be listed in a directory, if I have a towing company, I would want my consumers to maybe google towing companies in Ottawa, and my company name would come up. It probably does come up in the Yellow Pages directory or Canada411, but not on these scam ones, so they're of no commercial value to businesses.
How do we investigate those? We receive complaints. We have our own complaint centre, through the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and through our partnerships. Then we evaluate those complaints. We have enforcement priorities, and at a certain point we decide to investigate. When we get to that stage, we have several investigative tools in our toolbox, including search warrants, sections under our act where we can apply for people to provide information, written returns, or records, or provide information under oath. We have to apply to courts for these powers and show that there are reasonable grounds that these offences have occurred. That's what really gets us started on our investigation, when we use those powers and we analyze that information. Eventually, we complete our investigation and refer it to the federal prosecution services with recommendations to charge, and it's their decision whether the individuals or companies should be prosecuted.
Often what happens is that the targets are convicted. They are often fined significant amounts of money, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, and a time sentenced to jail terms. The highest jail term received so far is three and a half years, but it wasn't until 2009 that the penalty was increased to 14 years in jail, so we expect more severe jail terms.
In terms of victim restitution, there are provisions in the Criminal Code for that avenue for judges. There are also proceeds of crime that attaches to our offences, as well as Criminal Code offences. At times we do that.
It's really a question most of the time of what kind of evidence we're able to uncover at the time of our investigations. The criminals are smart, as has been said, and often they move and hide their money. When we find it, we do what we can. We're getting better and better at identifying those assets.