Fergie's Tech Blog

Canadian Police: Identity Thieves Cashing In On Canadians' Info Online

Via CBC News.

Criminal organizations are cashing in on lucrative but low-risk identity theft as Canadians increasingly put personal information in the public realm, law enforcement agencies warned Friday.

"As we move more and more to the internet and technology being used, the risks are increasing, and I think that a lot of the public are not very careful about their identity," RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said.

The collection and trafficking of personal information brings in big profits for organized criminal groups, with little possibility of detection and prosecution, warns the 2008 annual report from Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, a network for exchanging information on organized crime that includes about 400 law enforcement agencies .

Lower-level criminal groups are typically involved in collection and trafficking of personal information while higher-level groups use the data to commit crimes, the report says.

posted by Fergie @ 8/22/2008 08:39:00 PM