Be vigilant against credit card fraud, consumer group urges

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada on Friday urged all credit-card holders to be vigilant and carefully monitor their credit card statements for any unusual activity in light of two high-profile security breaches revealed this week.

The agency says people who shopped at Winners and HomeSense between December 2006 and Jan. 17, 2007 should carefully monitor theirstatements.

Consumers should also verify their most recent transactions with their credit card company and report any suspicious charges immediately.People can also request a copy of their credit report to ensure their credit ratings have not been compromised.

Privacy commissioner investigating CIBC, TJX Cos.

The privacy commissioner of Canadaon Thursday announced she is launching an investigation into a CIBC personal information breach involving nearly half a million people.

Jennifer Stoddart said that her office is working with CIBC to investigate the loss of a backup computer file containing personal information on approximately 470,000 clients of Talvest Mutual Funds, a subsidiary of the bank.

"Although I appreciate that the bank notified us of this incident and that it is working co-operatively with my office, I am nevertheless deeply troubled, especially given the magnitude of this breach, which puts at risk the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Canadians," Stoddart said in a release.

The commissioner said she has reasonable grounds to investigate whether the bank violated the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Stoddart's office also said Friday itis checking to see if TJX Cos., the U.S. parent firm of Canadian retailers Winners and HomeSense, was in compliance with private sector privacy laws after the company acknowledged Thursday that customer information has been stolen from its systems.

Meanwhile, consumer advocates have criticized TJX Cos., saying the company seriously violated consumer trust. The company said it discovered in mid-December that its information system had been hacked.

'Major breach of consumer confidence'

"What happened at Winners is a major breach of consumer confidence because when people put down their credit card they assume it's going to be safe," said Tom Keenan, a professor at the University of Calgary.

"Now they find out that transactions as far back as 2003 have been compromised and they don't know where that information has gone.It could be for sale on a hacker bulletin board somewhere in Russia by now," Keenan said.

Mel Fruitman, vice-president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, says companies should only keep credit card information as long as they need to verify the transaction.

"There is no reason for them to have that credit card information. Full stop," Fruitman said.

The company said the stolen information covers transactions between 2003 and part of 2006.

Anne-Marie Haden, a spokeswoman for the privacy commissioner, said companies must abide by a set of principles outlined in PIPEDA, including identifying the purposes of collecting information, asking for consent of the individual, limiting the collection to what's necessary, and ensuring that the information is safe.

"You're not supposed to have information for longer than is required," Hayden said Friday. "We'll have to look again at whether or not they did hold it for longer than is required. In this case I couldn't tell you yet."