Moreover, the many claimants we spoke to maintain that they were never notified by the federal institution. They discovered it on their own, because they were not receiving their benefits – which sometimes put them in a precarious situation – or because they accessed their file online to obtain their T4E slip.
The modus operandi seems to have been the same in all cases. The addresses and the bank account were changed in complete ignorance of the service providers and, in all likelihood, with a certain ease.
We would like to clarify that Service Canada accounts were not hacked
says the agency. We know that fraudsters can use information (for example, name, social insurance number, date of birth, a relative’s last name, or even passwords) following a theft of ‘identify.
Defrauded Canadians were not notified by Service Canada.
Photo: Radio-Canada / ICI Radio-Canada
Never notified
Service Canada specifies that the Quebec region experienced a significantly higher number of frauds related to identity theft or their identity being compromised in the private sector and financial institutions
.
The majority of people who have told us about their misfortune are customers of Desjardins, an institution that experienced a massive leak of personal information in 2019.
But some are not, like Manuel Lévesque of Saint-Lin–Laurentides. I told them [à Service Canada] that it’s impossible, because I’m not part of the credit union fraud
he says. I have not been defrauded other than by unemployment.
Mr. Lévesque, who drives cement mixers, explains that he applied for employment insurance in December, but never received anything. After several weeks and a second request without payment, it is went down to the unemployment office
to learn that his account had been compromised several months before: By dint of talking to the madam, I ended up knowing that my unemployment had been defrauded in July and August!
” Or […] I’m blocking is that they don’t call anyone to warn anyone. »
Still waiting for his checks and the regularization of his file, Manuel Lévesque is not losing his temper with Service Canada. If we owe them five dollars, they send us a letter
he quips.
As for Éliane L., a client at Desjardins, she also wonders why she was not notified. When she wanted to make a request, she noticed that her address and bank account had changed, but she was unable to do anything, since her account had been revoked.
They told me that I had nothing to worry about and that the request had been blocked, since the fraudulent address was known
she says.
” It was really difficult, because sometimes it was four to five hours of waiting in line [au téléphone]. »
The case of Éliane L. is not unique. By the end of January, additional staff and measures have, according to Service Canada, restored benefit payments to more than 14,500 clients. It was not possible to obtain from the agency the exact number of victims of identity theft or the amounts that may have been paid in error.
Madame X’s file under review
We pressed Service Canada to better understand the origin of the security breach. We cannot discuss individual cases without a waiver
we were told.
A client, whose account has been usurped and whom we will call Ms. X to preserve her identity, therefore agreed to sign for Radio-Canada a consent form for the release of personal information to the media
. She discovered the scam when she wanted to download her T4E slip for the filing of her income tax return.
Despite everything, the agency did not answer our question because, it argued, on December 21, an anomaly has been detected in the information provided by the fraudster and a stop payment has been added to the file [de madame X] the 31st of December
. First reaction of the service provider: Why on the evening of February 7, when I discovered the situation, I had still not received a call or a letter?
The government institution maintains that its file was paid from February 16, 2022
. Second reaction of the service provider: Why is this still showing up in my file as a review request?
Program Security
The government says it has implemented measures to protect the integrity of benefit programs including the development of solutions for verifying customer authentication information
such as mandatory multi-factor authentication.
However, to access her file, Ms. X had such authentication with a security code sent by text message for almost a year when fraudsters were able to modify information on her account. She never received any alert.
As the cases presented in these lines illustrate, Service Canada nevertheless seems to have succeeded in blocking certain dishonest attempts, thanks to data analytics and intelligence capabilities to prevent, detect and deter fraud
.
On a very large scale
The National Council of the Unemployed, which defends the rights of unemployed workers, evokes identity theft on a very large scale that we cannot yet explain
.
There are thousands of people who have been locked out of unemployment because of a claim made on their behalf
says his spokesman Pierre Céré. It sometimes took months to unlock them and it continues.
Mr. Céré recalls a January meeting with Service Canada officials where his organization raised the subject: They stopped breathing, because at that time they didn’t want to acknowledge it, at least publicly.
” It is abnormal for files to drag on for months. Even more surreal is that it is practically necessary, as a worker, to demonstrate a state of indigence on the part of the claimant for the file to be processed. »
The Bloc Québécois gets involved
We have not been able to find out if the method of the criminals could be definitively thwarted or if Canadians who had never had recourse to employment insurance could have been targeted.
On April 1, in a letter sent to the Minister of National Revenue, Diane Lebouthillier, the Bloc Québécois pointed out that cases of employment insurance fraud are likely to increase drastically when people receive their notice of assessment and realize that they have to pay tax on amounts they have never seen the color
.
The political party is also indignant that taxpayers still owe paying taxes unfairly
on Canada emergency and recovery benefits that they never got.
The author of the letter, MP Jean-Denis Garon, asks the Minister for a grace period for those defrauded, the time to resolve the situation, and this, without interest
and the Canada Revenue Agency issues a new notice of assessment upon receipt of the amended T4E from Service Canada
.
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca