OTTAWA – The INDU committee’s “first start” is already under way for the most part thanks to the CRTC and the telecom industry.
The standing committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) presented a report to the House of Commons on Friday entitled Fraudulent Calls in Canada: A Federal Government’s First Start.
“Fraud calls cause significant losses to Canadians,” says the committee. “Supported by fraudulent offshore call centres and easily accessible technologies, such as robocalls and spoofing, fraudsters manage to deliver scams despite the best efforts of law enforcement agencies. To make things worse, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a significant upsurge in fraud targeting Canadians.”
The committee held three meetings on this topic and received six briefs and on Friday it offered 15 recommendations (see below) to better protect the public. They are (with some annotations as to where the industry already is with each one):
- That the Government of Canada work with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Statistics Canada, provincial governments, and police enforcement agencies across the country to improve the availability and accessibility of data on fraud calls in Canada. (Everyone agrees this is an excellent idea, but there are numerous agencies and governments involved, to say nothing about privacy worries.)
- That the Government of Canada work with the CRTC, telecommunications service providers, and police enforcement agencies to increase and improve information available to Canadians about fraud calls (This is being done constantly, already, but perhaps not systematically).
- That the Government of Canada introduce legislation requiring businesses in federally regulated industries, such as banks and telecommunications carriers, to publicly disclose each year how many accounts they discovered had been opened using fraudulent information and how many individuals they contacted to notify them that their information was used for fraudulent purposes. (This is new and would be helpful to know.)
- That the Government of Canada increase its collaboration with foreign governments and international organizations to close overseas fraud call centres and prosecute fraudsters targeting Canadians, and include fraud prevention considerations in any current and future trade agreements. (Not sure how closely the government works with other countries, but the CRTC does co-operate with other regulators around the world on this.)
- That the Government of Canada introduce legislation to facilitate the exchange of confidential information between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission, and other Canadian governmental bodies in order to co-ordinate an effective response against fraud calls while protecting privacy rights.
- That the Government of Canada support the involvement of smaller carriers in the implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN framework in order to maintain competition in the telecommunications market. (Implementation of STIR/SHAKEN, while delayed is well under way, and has to be carried out by all carriers, big or small, is our understanding.)
- That the Government of Canada request the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to examine potential privacy issues raised by the implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN framework.
- That the Government of Canada support the development of industry-based solutions against fraud calls at a reasonable cost for consumers. (This is already in motion. In fact, Bell Canada has deployed an artificial intelligence solution which blocked more than 200 million fraud calls in just 61 days.)
- That the Government of Canada encourage the CRTC to monitor and consider the cost of industry‑based solutions against fraud calls when making decisions that affect the affordability of telecommunications services. (As far as we know so far, Bell’s solution is not causing a direct increase in costs to consumers, nor is the implementation of STIR/SHAKEN.)
- That the Government of Canada review legislation pertaining to fraud to ensure that it adequately and explicitly prohibits fraud calls, including fraud calls initiated by robocalls, and further review criminal fines, penalties, and enforcement with regards to Canadian and international laws.
- That the Government of Canada review directives and authorities issued to the CRTC to ensure that protection against fraud delivered through vocal telecommunications is sufficiently integrated in Canadian telecommunications policy in order to best protect the public. (This has been a focus of the companies and the Commission for some time. It seems well integrated already.)
- That the Government of Canada support efforts by the CRTC to conduct a public inquiry into unauthorized porting. (Uh-oh. The Commission recently said “no” when the Public Interest Advocacy Centre asked for just this.)
- Should the CRTC fail to launch a public inquiry into unauthorized porting within six months, that the Government of Canada introduce legislation to protect Canadians against unauthorized porting.
- That the Government of Canada launch a month-long, public awareness campaign in Canadian local and national media, to warn Canadians against Covid-19−related fraud. (The CRTC does this some on social media, but a larger awareness campaign with a bigger budget hitting more media – especially media which older folks might be more apt to see, is a good idea.)
- That the Government of Canada work toward becoming an international leader in the prevention of fraud by reviewing progress on these recommendations one year from now with a report from all relevant ministers to the House of Commons, and then refer it to the appropriate Committee.
