Those of you who follow this spot know that I am a big fan of Phonebusters and that I like to re-print and promote their statistics on identity theft in Canada. Further, you may have noticed a rather troubling trend - identity theft seems to be on the rise.

With that trend in mind, I was especially happy to see Phonebusters' October numbers. In October 2009, only 295 people called Phonebusters and reported being a victim of identity theft! These people were defrauded out of a total of $609,933.79. Those numbers compare favourably to September 2009, when 808 people were defrauded out of a total of $1,143,206.95.

I do not have enough historical information to comment upon whether this could just be a seasonal decline, but let's hope that this is a sign that identity theft is finally starting to slow down.

Finally, I want to add in my standard disclaimer. These numbers are not a complete snapshot of identity theft in Canada. People are not required to report identity theft to Phonebusters, rather, reporting is fully voluntary. Unfortunately, despite all the interviews and presentations they do, many people do not even know that Phonebusters exists. Let's try to change that in 2010...