The Globe had a strong editorial yesterday about identity theft and spam
Identity thieves can hijack a lifelong reputation for prudence at one stroke. They can rummage through household mail or recycling boxes, looking for personal documents. They can steal credit cards. They can use false pretexts to solicit personal and financial information. They can hack into computer databases. Identity theft can lead to fraud, organized crime and terrorism. It can devastate the victim, who may be forced to patiently reconstruct his or her life. So it is commendable that the federal Conservatives have promised to introduce legislation to allow police to nab identity thieves before they actually commit identity fraud. As it stands, the law covers offences involving the misuse of another person's identity information. But the existing list of Criminal Code offences generally does not cover the preparatory steps of collecting, possessing and trafficking in identity information. "I think it's a growing problem," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson declared last week, "and we've got to get on it now because the technology people use to obtain information will only get better. We've got to get something on the books." Wise move.
...
Ottawa could also tackle the dramatic growth of spam, which identity thieves deploy to trick people, often the elderly, into revealing personal information. Canada is the only G8 country without anti-spam legislation. And it could deal with "pretexting," in which the thief obtains information by pretending to be someone else. It should ensure that businesses do not ask for social insurance numbers as routine identification. And it should create a one-stop federal shop for identity theft, focusing the efforts of several departments and agencies. With so much information in so many databases, the current situation can only get worse.
Unfortunately the editorial is behind a paywall, although I don't know who they think is going to pay to unlock 580 words.
Globe and Mail - Stealing an identity - October 9, 2007
Canada did have a Task Force on Spam that wrote a report with a bunch of recommendations, but as usual, we have done nothing. Meanwhile the filters necessary to make my work email usable now catch over 100 junk messages per day. I don't like spam.
Monty Python: Spam Song.
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