identity theft, episode I, chapter four
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Toronto, 2011.06.20
One of the member's of Toronto's 52 division's anti-fraud unit called to follow up on the mobile phone fraud incident from last month.
The conversation was a fairly thorough one. Some of the additional precautions I now have to take:
- Signing an affidavit (either at a justice of the peace or in front of someone else) swearing that I was not part of the fraud against the mobile phone company. Doing so is designed to strengthen my claim that I am not responsible because filing a fraudulent affidavit carries such a major penalty that no one would do so.
- Filing my tax returns ASAP every year to ensure that no one files a fraudulent return before I file.
- To open all junk mail that I get, and shred it all before disposing of it.
Curiously, the officer I spoke with (who was very helpful) said that this probably wasn't executed in order to obtain the hand sets that are distributed with such accounts, but rather to use the phone numbers in such schemes as selling phony tickets to events. Typically this sort of thing could be done in my name (what the hell, they have an ID).
Solid advice, and good stuff to hear, tough as it is.