d10d6abe   
   From: bo774@FreeNet.Carleton.CA   
      
   Alan Baggett (canada.revenueagency@hotmail.com) writes:   
   >   
   > I was told a slightly different version of this tale (link above) by   
   > Gladstone Sue of the Toronto West TSO (Mississauga).   
   >   
   > The theft of all of Canada=92s Social Insurance Numbers took place   
   > (allegedly by one Andreas Hackner) in the early 1980=92s BC =91Before   
   > Computers=92 at the Toronto Office before Toronto was subdivided into 4   
   > offices. The culprit was a very close friend of Gladstone Sue   
   > explaining why he knows these intimate details.   
   >   
   > Mr. Kelly Bert Manning wrote that the employee was disgruntled which   
   > is why he stole the fiche but that is not quite accurate. Gladstone   
   > says that Andreas actually wanted to start a business locating   
   > individuals that had lost or forgotten bank accounts. Information on   
   > dormant bank accounts is published and he was going to charge a fee to   
   > reunite them. The question was however =91How would he be able to   
   > quickly and easily locate the individuals?=92 There were lots of ways   
   > but the easiest way was via Revenue Canada microfiche. The microfiche   
   > holds everything names, SIN's and, most importantly - current   
   > addresses of all Canadians (as long as they are filed up to date). One   
   > day (on his day off I was told) Andreas walked into the Toronto office   
   > dumped the fiche and reader into a garbage bag and walked out. He was   
   > fingered because someone remembered that he was in the office on his   
   > day off. The last place the average Civil Servant would be found on   
   > his day off, the Union frowns on it.   
   >   
   > When they questioned Andreas he admitted it.   
      
   The account at the Federal Privacy Commission web site says that Hackner's   
   lawyer contacted officials after the Minister announced the loss of the   
   taxpayer fiche.   
      
   In any case "George", the head of the BCGEU was unaware of the "Toronto   
   Incident" when I asked him at an anti-outsourcing union rally meeting   
   early in 2005. If was the first time I had heard of a union meeting in   
   advance, so I thought I would attend and stir things up a bit. "George"   
   was also unaware that a BC Ministry of Health employee was convicted in   
   the 1970s for peddling addresses from BC MSP plan records to skip tracers.   
      
   That sort of let the air out of Mr. Heymann's claims about there being   
   no substitute for oath sworn public employees to protect privacy. A bit   
   of research could have spared him embarassment, but why let fact checking   
   get in the way of a plausible sounding claim about oaths and their   
   reliability. I think he was sorry he asked if there were any questions.-)   
      
   The recent disclosures about a Public Service manager turning out to have   
   obtained his job by assuming the identity of a disabled man haven't helped   
   in that regard. When police searched the previously convicted identity   
   theif's home they found paper copies of personal files, and stolen mail   
   room stamps "Certified True Copy", etc. along with Identity Theft   
   equipment and supplies.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)