Canada Post is investigating after an Ottawa man’s mailing address was changed online and someone applied for several credit cards in his name.
Mike Wood said he realized last week that his mail was missing.
He said that when he called Canada Post, he was told his mail was being forwarded to another address, after someone paid $117 to make the change online.
Wood said the postal service official wouldn’t tell him where his mail was ending up, and that police told him they couldn’t help without that information.
That sent Wood into a flurry of phone calls to banks and credit card companies, to try to prevent further problems.
Wood said Canada Post told him whoever apparently stole his identity would have had to answer multiple security questions. He’s not sure how that’s possible.
He added that a Canada Post representative also told him that tax season is a common time for identity theft, because tax forms include social insurance numbers.
Canada Post wouldn’t comment about the case, beyond confirming that they are investigating.
Their website lists five “common techniques used to obtain personal information fraudulently”:
- Stealing mail, such as bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, and new cheque and tax information, before delivery.
- Stealing delivered mail by breaking into apartment, community and residential mailboxes.
- Completing a fraudulent change of address form to redirect your mail to another location.
- Searching through personal or business trash, or the public trash dumps.
- Breaking into mailboxes, delivery boxes and other Canada Post property to steal incoming or outgoing mail.
With a report from CTV Ottawa
