Nurse’s Stolen Identity
A data breach at her hospital employer, sometime around 2019, sat undetected for years—until Leslie logged in to file her taxes and found someone else's bank details on her account. What followed was a five-year unraveling: benefits frozen through the pandemic, a fraud charge for children she'd never had, and a small-town police force telling her, again and again, that identity theft was simply out of their jurisdiction:
“I work full time as a nurse. And instead of recovering on my days off, I have been dealing with a nightmare of identity theft for five years. It is brutal. I would not wish it on anybody.
I did not know that I had a problem until 2019, and I don’t know how my identity had been breached. I was employed as a hospital nurse from 2003 to 2009, when a massive data breach affected my workplace. It was not until last year that I found out the data had been breached through my employer. When the breach happened, there were a couple of emails. They were very broad, with generic advice of 'call our numbers’ if you were affected. The memo said they would be in touch if anything happened. No one got in touch. Some co-workers got identity theft protection. I trusted the health authority to be accountable.
I was late filing my taxes. I logged into the account and found a note of assessment. My address had changed. My bank information had changed. The hackers got fully into my Canada Revenue Agency account in the fall of 2019, and I discovered it in the spring of 2021. It was the beginning of a nightmare. Since then, it was one thing after another. My account was shut down for over three years. I did not have access to any benefits during the pandemic, when people needed them most. I was only lucky to be fully employed, otherwise I would have been left without any support. The government owed me ten thousand dollars in tax returns, which took over three years to get.
“My account was shut down for over three years.”
When I learned about the damage, I first contacted the local police. I spent hours on the phone trying to report. It was such a runaround. There is no hotline for identity theft. I live in a tiny town of six thousand people. I went in and the woman at the desk said, ‘You need to hire a lawyer.’ I said: ‘I am still pretty sure the first step is to file a report.’ The police officer was very nice but completely unequipped to handle it. ‘It is out of our jurisdiction’ was the usual response.I spent countless hours calling authorities, the bank, the bureau—without a solution.
The theft of my identity had a far-reaching impact on my life. I did not get my voting card. They could not find me in the system. The database was showing I was living in a different province. I had trouble getting a mortgage because I did not have a proper assessment of my earnings. I needed to change the bank and hire a broker to be able to buy my house.
Then I was criminally charged for fraud. A woman had used my identity to obtain a fake licence and faked three children’s birth certificates. She was claiming social service income with my identity. I was fingerprinted. Mugshots were made. I had to inform my employer and let them know it was a mix-up, but I had criminal charges against me.
“I was fingerprinted. Mugshots were made. I had to inform my employer and let them know it was a mix-up, but I had criminal charges against me.”
Nobody knows how to deal with it, and nobody wants to deal with it.I had to fight very hard to report and follow up and have anyone help me. I still have much to do to fix things.
My identity was used at ground zero of a massive crime scheme against the Canada Revenue Agency.I found out my identity was used to pose as a director of a fake company, the original company that was issuing fake tax documents to run fraudster schemes. What they do: they get the money, they shut the business, and they keep doing it, going in circles; it’s called a carousel crime scheme. By the time someone detects a problem, they are long gone. On three different occasions I would get calls: ‘Did you start this business?’ No. Fraudsters. The stories are so wild that people do not even believe you.
I can change my social insurance number. It will take months. And for a person who has fallen through the cracks so many times, I am afraid to mess up my pension or have any other problems arise. I no longer trust our broken system.
The scammers stopped using my identity for now, but they can use it again any day, in ten years even. I am always on the edge. I also know that the fact they stopped using my information means they have moved on to another victim.”
Leslie, Canada