Fraudulent Calls in Canada: a Federal Government's First Start

FRAUDULENT CALLS IN CANADA: A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S FIRST START Report of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology Sherry Romanado, Chair NOVEMBER 2020 43rd PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION The proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees are hereby made available to provide greater public access. The parliamentary privilege of the House of Commons to control the publication and broadcast of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees is nonetheless reserved. All copyrights therein are also reserved. Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and in any medium, is hereby permitted provided that the reproduction is accurate and is not presented as official. This permission does not extend to reproduction, distribution or use for commercial purpose of financial gain. Reproduction or use outside this permission or without authorization may be treated as copyright infringement in accordance with the Copyright Act. Authorization may be obtained on written application to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Reproduction in accordance with this permission does not constitute publication under the authority of the House of Commons. The absolute privilege that applies to the proceedings of the House of Commons does not extend to these permitted reproductions. Where a reproduction includes briefs to a Standing Committee of the House of Commons, authorization for reproduction may be required from the authors in accordance with the Copyright Act. Nothing in this permission abrogates or derogates from the privileges, powers, immunities and rights of the House of Commons and its Committees. For greater certainty, this permission does not affect the prohibition against impeaching or questioning the proceedings of the House of Commons in courts or otherwise. The House of Commons retains the right and privilege to find users in contempt of Parliament if a reproduction or use is not in accordance with this permission. Also available on the House of Commons website at the following address: www.ourcommons.ca FRAUDULENT CALLS IN CANADA: A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S FIRST START Report of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology Sherry Romanado Chair NOVEMBER 2020 43rd PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION NOTICE TO READER Reports from committee presented to the House of Commons Presenting a report to the House is the way a committee makes public its findings and recommendations on a particular topic. Substantive reports on a subject-matter study usually contain a synopsis of the testimony heard, the recommendations made by the committee, as well as the reasons for those recommendations. STANDING COMMITTEE ON INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 43RD PARLIAMENT – 1ST SESSION CHAIR Sherry Romanado VICE-CHAIRS Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner Sébastien Lemire MEMBERS Earl Dreeshen Ali Ehsassi Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Tracy Gray Helena Jaczek Majid Jowhari Emmanuelle Lambropoulos Brian Masse Jeremy Patzer OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO PARTICIPATED Sean Casey Julie Dabrusin Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Chris Lewis Llyod Longfield Paul Manly Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Tako Van Popta iii CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE Michael MacPherson LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Information and Research Service Francis Lord, Analyst Sarah Lemelin-Bellerose, Analyst iv STANDING COMMITTEE ON INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 43RD PARLIAMENT – 2ND SESSION CHAIR Sherry Romanado VICE-CHAIRS James Cumming Sébastien Lemire MEMBERS Earl Dreeshen Ali Ehsassi Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Helena Jaczek Majid Jowhari Emmanuelle Lambropoulos Brian Masse John Nater Derek Sloan OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO PARTICIPATED Taylor Bachrach Tony Baldinelli CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE Michael MacPherson LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Information and Research Service Francis Lord, Analyst Sarah Lemelin-Bellerose, Analyst v THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY has the honour to present its FIRST REPORT Pursuant to its mandate under Standing Order 108(2), the committee has studied fraud calls in Canada and has agreed to report the following: vii TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................................................................1 LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................3 FRAUDULENT CALLS IN CANADA: A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S FIRST START ...........7 Help Protect Canadians ...................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Fraud and Other Nuisance Calls ..................................................................................................... 7 Understanding the Problem ......................................................................................................7 Current Response ........................................................................................................................ 11 Federal Authorities .............................................................................................................. 11 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police ................................................................... 11 The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ..................................................................................................................... 13 Telecommunications Services Providers .................................................................. 15 The STIR/SHAKEN Framework ............................................................................. 16 Other Measures .............................................................................................................. 19 Unauthorized Porting ........................................................................................................................ 21 COVID-19−related Fraud ................................................................................................................. 23 Committee Observations and Recommendations ............................................................... 27 APPENDIX A LIST OF WITNESSES ...................................................................................................... 33 APPENDIX B LIST OF BRIEFS ................................................................................................................ 35 REQUEST FOR GOVERNMENT RESPONSE ..................................................................................... 37 ix SUMMARY Fraud calls cause significant losses to Canadians. Supported by offshore fraud call centres and easily accessible technologies, such as robocalls and spoofing, fraudsters manage to deliver scams despite the best efforts of law enforcement agencies, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and telecommunications service providers (TSPs). To better protect the public, the federal government must support the adoption of new techniques and technology, such as a timely implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN framework that sufficiently addresses competition and privacy concerns. The federal government should also improve cooperation between relevant public authorities at home and abroad, data collection, public awareness and transparency, and criminal legislation and enforcement. The federal government should pay further attention to allegations that fraudsters exploit federal wireless number portability rules to conduct harmful unauthorized- porting scams. While the CRTC and TSPs are developing measures against unauthorized porting, more should be done to protect Canadians. More specifically, the Committee invites the federal government to urge the CRTC to conduct a public inquiry into unauthorized porting, and to step in and regulate the matter directly should the CRTC fail to do so. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an upsurge in fraud targeting Canadians. Indeed, between January 2020 and April 2020, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police observed that the number of fraud reports increased by 25% over the same period last year. The COVID-19 pandemic is putting lives and livelihoods at risk, and the Canadian economy in jeopardy. The federal government should prevent any further harm to Canadians. In the short term, increasing public awareness remains the most effective way to counter COVID-19−related fraud. The federal government should act now by launching a public awareness campaign in local and national media to warn Canadians against COVID-19−related fraud. LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below. Recommendation 1 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. .............................................................................................................27 Recommendation 2 That the Government of Canada

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