OTTAWA -- Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says identity theft is a "type of elder abuse" and he intends to table a federal bill to make it a crime.
Nicholson confirmed he is preparing a piece of legislation to update the Criminal Code to deal with the modern-day problem, which is suspected of claiming thousands of victims in Canada every month.
"I intend to move forward," Nicholson told CanWest News Service. "It's a developing area and what we find is there are gaps in the law."
Identity theft is currently not a crime in Canada, which has sparked numerous calls for government action. Offences involving identity theft are prosecuted under several other Criminal Code sections, such as fraud and impersonation, but there is nothing that outlaws someone from possessing another person's information.
Nicholson would not say whether he will introduce the legislation before the House of Commons recesses this month for its summer break.
He said a big reason for creating a new crime is that seniors are particularly vulnerable to identity theft scams.
"Where it's a particular problem is for senior citizens," said Nicholson. "In my opinion it's actually a type of elder abuse that seniors are a particular target of this kind of crime."
Various surveys estimate that the number of Canadians who have been victimized by identity theft is between two million and four million. Experts agree there are no reliable statistics to measure the problem. Nor can they say exactly how many seniors are affected.
PhoneBusters, the national anti-fraud call line, reports that 64 per cent of its complaints come from senior citizens.
"Seniors are vulnerable, many of them have disposable incomes, a lot of them are lonely and they like to talk to people and they share too much personal information," said Det.-Sgt. Debbie Bell, who runs the PhoneBusters centre.
In 2006, almost 7,800 victims reported to PhoneBusters losses of $16 million, but the numbers fall significantly short of the suspected cases of identity theft in Canada.
The move to criminalize theft of another person's personal information comes amid widespread calls for a crackdown, most recently from the House of Commons finance committee, and Canada's privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart.
Nicholson's confirmation that a new law is pending comes after CanWest News Service reported three weeks ago that the government was preparing legislation.
-- CanWest News Service
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