By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On February 20th, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology “adopted a motion to study the influx of fraud calls in Canada, including robocalls, ghost calls, and spam calls. The Committee will also examine the successes and failures of the National Do-Not-Call List, and the STIR/SHAKEN measures that will be implemented in September 2020.”
The first meeting, held on Tuesday, March 10th, when Parliament was still running and COVID-19 wasn’t all the news, saw committee members hear two panels discuss the issue.
The first had representatives of the CRTC and the RCMP.
In their opening remarks, both said they’re doing their best to fight these unsolicited calls which impact everyone and are a scourge on society, particularly for vulnerable people, as “they often lead to criminal activity, such as fraud and identity theft,” said Ian Scott, chairman of the CRTC.
Prevention was a big part of the discussion but also about each the role of both the Regulator and the police. Technically, unwanted calls can be divided in two categories: nuisance and fraudulent calls. The CRTC can pursue nuisance calls but criminal matters are outside its jurisdiction. They work with carriers to ensure fraudulent calls are curtailed. Requiring networks to be upgraded so they can allow some technology that make it difficult for fraudulent calls to be terminated, is a good example.
As Scott said during his testimony: “A decade ago we were focused on spam emails, phony emails. The systems are now working to reduce that. Today, the focus is on spoofing and it’s growing, not just in calls, but on texts. These things evolve and we have to pursue all of them.”
A lot of statistics get presented in these types of meetings and Scott delivered some scary ones. “I will give you some frightening numbers. The U.S. follows this closely—there are a number of commercial firms. There were 100 billion calls in the last two years. For February, this month, the latest data—4.8 billion calls placed in the United States. Of that, 43% were fraudulent. That 4.8 billion robocalls equates to 1,900 per second, 43% of those, so it’s something in the order of 1,000 a second. That’s the kind of volume of the problem we’re confronting.”
Added Eric Slinn, assistant commissioner, federal policing criminal operations of the RCMP “First and foremost, again, law enforcement needs to do a better job. A lot of the times you’re quite right, they take a call from a complainant who’s been victimized, lost some money. What we’re hearing sometimes from law enforcement, RCMP included, is call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. That’s not the correct thing to do. That’s one step to do because the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is not an investigative body. It collects intelligence, trends, and so on.”
Incidentally, one of the responsibilities of the CRTC in this battle is the national Do Not Call List which they have been mandated to operate by legislation since 2008. The contract to run the list was originally been awarded to Bell Canada but at the hearing we learned that it is now the responsibility of accounting firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton since January 15, 2018.
Then after one hour, representatives of the three major telephone companies made their presentations, followed by questions by the members of the Committee. The Chair of the Committee, Liberal Sherry Romanado ran a tight ship by requiring questions and answers to be short but at time it sounded more like speed dating than public policy making.
“Even as the industry adopts increasingly more countermeasures, the criminals are not resting. Their tactics and techniques continually evolve and change so that stopping unwanted mass calling becomes even more difficult.” – Howard Slawner, Rogers Communications
“The parties placing spam, fraudulent and blatantly spoof calls are aggressive and unrelenting despite the established rules in place to protect consumers. Since they operate without fear of retribution or sanction, the mere existence of a National Do Not Call List will not be sufficient to eliminate the issue,” said Howard Slawner, vice-president, regulatory telecommunications at Rogers in his opening remarks.
Phone companies participate dutifully to these efforts because it is the integrity of their systems that is at stake and the satisfaction of its customers.
But as Slawner said”: Moreover, even as the industry adopts increasingly more countermeasures, the criminals are not resting. Their tactics and techniques continually evolve and change so that stopping unwanted mass calling becomes even more difficult.
“Most importantly, they are almost all situated offshore. There is, however, much that can be done to combat unwanted mass calls. It will require the co-operation of industry, the CRTC and the Government of Canada,” he went on.
On the funny side, Slinn told the MPs “no one is exempt from these fraud calls. By way of example, just two weeks ago I received three separate calls within an hour from fraudsters pretending to be the CRA advising I was subject to criminal charges and a warrant would be issued for my arrest. This was only on my RCMP-issued cell phone. A lot of fun was had by me that day.”
So, despite all these efforts, everybody is getting calls even the CRTC chair’s mother: “I receive them and my mother receives them. I have my own special complainant that I have to pay special attention to,” said Scott.
Lots to be done and the challenges are high but, as the CRTC chair added: “Canadians are rightfully proud of our systems. When these systems are abused by criminal elements, however, it erodes the confidence of Canadians.”
Parliament is now suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak. There will be more to come on this when it resumes.
