Close to half of all Canadians still carry their SIN card in their wallet, even though the social insurance number is a key piece of information for identity thieves, Canada's privacy commissioner says.

In an annual report issued Thursday, Jennifer Stoddart says a poll of about 2,000 people conducted for her office suggests that many Canadians aren't taking basic steps to protect themselves.

The first precaution she cites is not letting your SIN card be stolen, and the poll results suggest that some people are getting the message.

This year, 46 per cent of respondents said they carry their card in their wallet, down from 58 per cent in 2006 and 62 per cent in 2005.

The report says identity theft may involve "a crook using your personal information to pose as you and apply for credit cards and loans, open bank accounts or get new documents such as driver’s licences and SIN cards."

Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, says social insurance cards should be kept in a safe place, not in wallets that might be stolen.
(Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

Although the term is applied to everything from straightforward cheque and credit-card frauds to complex cases in which an impostor creates a synthetic identity, most Canadians think of identity theft simply as the use or disclosure of another person’s identity without his or her knowledge or consent, the report says.

It says private data is stolen by such means as:

• physical theft;
  
• computer hacking;
  
• insider theft from corporate or government databases;
  
• spam e-mails that trick people into revealing personal information;
  
• pretexting, a practice in which, for example, a fraudster calls an organization pretending to be the person whose information is being sought, a relative of that person or someone authorized to obtain the information.

According to the report, the best numbers on the prevalence of identity theft in Canada come from PhoneBusters, an anti-fraud call centre run by the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP.

In 2006, PhoneBusters heard from 7,800 people who described themselves as identity theft victims, and they reported losses to themselves and to businesses totalling more than $16 million, Stoddart's report says.

"PhoneBusters estimates these numbers represent a small percentage — perhaps five per cent — of actual figures," the report says.
 
The report calls for comprehensive federal action against identity theft, including such steps as:

• Privacy Act amendments requiring greater protection of personal information held by government agencies.
• New civil and criminal penalties for identity thieves.
• Legislation to combat pretexting and e-mail spam, especially the kind used to elicit personal information.
• More public education on identity theft.