By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – There is “no silver bullet” that will put an end to fraudulent phone calls, Ian Scott, chair of the CRTC told the House of Commons Committee on Industry, Science and Technology last Thursday during a meeting at which Commission representatives updated the committee about their ongoing work on the problem.
“There is no single solution – no silver bullet – that will put an end to this scourge,” Scott said. “That is why we have put in place a robust strategy that relies on a number of technical and regulatory solutions.”
Back in March 2020, the Industry committee held four meetings and heard from 14 witnesses in order to “study the influx of fraud calls in Canada, including robocalls, ghost calls, and spam calls,” reads a news release issued at the time. “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,” it says.
On Nov. 27, 2020, the committee published its report outlining 15 proposals of things that should be done, some of which were already in motion.
On March 26, 2022, the government formally responded to the report. The response mentioned Project Octavia, which saw the RCMP and other Canadian law enforcement bodies “successfully worked with law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom, the United States, and India to target fraudsters who impersonated Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees, as well as other interrelated frauds involving criminals operating overseas. As of December 2020, the investigation had resulted in the closing of at least 39 call centres in India and the RCMP charging at least 10 individuals.”
Fraudulent calls, however, continue to be a problem.
For the CRTC’s part, at last week’s meeting, Scott described the various components of the Commission’s strategy to restore faith and confidence in Canada’s telecommunications system. (He mentioned that twice in his opening remarks.) Data he shared includes:
- Bell intercepted 1.5 billion calls using artificial intelligence, in a trial project.
- In the U.S. 2,100 robocalls are being made every second, of which 50% are deemed fraudulent. CRTC chair added, for emphasis, a thousand fraudulent robocalls per second! This highlights the fact that it is a tall order to put a dent into the problem.
- There are 14.6 million numbers on the National Do Not Call List, which was launched in 2008.
- $11 million has been collected in monetary penalties in the last ten years.
Typically, committees ask about whether the agency needs more money or powers.
It became clear, however, that no amount of money can solve the problem and that the CRTC and similar agencies (in Canada and around the world) are fighting an elusive enemy – opportunistic actors – and so even if you can put an end to one operation, another one will pop up somewhere else.
There are many complaints dealt with at the CRTC. “We are not shy of complaint: DNCL 3,000 a month and SPAM, 5,000 a week,” mentioned Steven Harroun, chief compliance and enforcement officer of the CRTC. His colleague stated that Canadians tend to under-complain (approximately 10-15% do so).
On funding, the CRTC chairman said “We are not poor! We have applied the resources we have effectively. But as technology evolves, people with bad intentions, criminal intentions use technology to subvert the system.”
“But the measures we are taking are all effective and we would be doing more of what we are doing,” Scott added.
One Liberal MP asked the CRTC chairman to respond in writing on the actions the Commission has undertaken following the recommendations of the committee, tabled in November 2020, so that the committee can assess the follow-up from their report.
Today, Monday Oct. 3, the committee heard from RCMP officials on this matter and later heard from Randall Baran-Chong, co-founder, Canadian SIM-swap Victims United, Kevin Cosgrove, digital safety educator and civilian advisor and John Mecher, retired RCMP fraud investigator. The trio of individuals were critical of the telcos, the CRTC and the RCMP, arguing, for example, that priorities are not in the right place.
