Thousands Of Canadians May Be Victims Of CERB Fraud & A Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed
The lawsuit has been certified by a judge.💰
The CERB application page on the CRA website.
Almost 13,000 Canadians may have been victims of CERB fraud in Canada, recent court documents have revealed.
A class action lawsuit certified on August 25 has suggested that hackers fraudulently applied for COVID-19 benefits on behalf of as many as 12,700 Canadians following a CRA data breach in 2020.
Back in August 2020, the CRA temporarily shut down its services following several cyber attacks that compromised accounts linked to its services.
Initially, it was thought that around 5,500 CRA accounts had been targeted during the cyber attacks. However, it was later revealed that as many as 48,500 accounts may have been compromised.
The federal court ruling has, for the first time, provided an insight into the success of the hackers involved.
Over a period of almost two weeks, they were able to fraudulently apply for the $2,000-per-week CERB on behalf of as many as 12,700 MyCRA Accounts.
At the moment, it's not clear how much the hackers were able to fraudulently claim in total during that period. However, the National Post reports that just one CERB payment for each of the 12,700 compromised accounts would total a whopping $25.4 million.
The class action lawsuit, which has been filed by B.C. resident Todd Sweet, wants compensation from the feds for "operational failures" that he says enabled hackers to access thousands of MyCRA Accounts during the period mentioned.
The lawsuit says that, because of this, the fraudsters were able to commit identity theft, benefit fraud, as well as access the sensitive and personal information of Canadians, including their SIN numbers, direct deposit banking information, tax details, records of employment and more.
Sweet says that he, and other class members, should be compensated for things like the costs involved with preventing identity theft, damage to their credit reputations, mental distress, any money withdrawn from their account without their consent, inability to access benefits they were entitled to and lost time, among other things.
Todd Sweet says that a hacker had made four CERB applications on his behalf without his knowledge, worth a total of $8,000. He says it took several months to receive a letter from the feds informing him that his personal information had been compromised during the data breach.
The Federal Court has now ruled that the class action lawsuit filed by Sweet is certified and can go ahead.
While the CRA was unable to comment on the lawsuit, a spokesperson told the National Post, "No organization is immune to cyber incidents or fraudulent activity. This is why the CRA has robust systems and tools in place to monitor, detect, investigate and quickly neutralize potential threats."
“We are committed to assisting individuals affected by fraud or identity theft, and have dedicated teams to promptly address any matters when they arise,” they added.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit — most commonly known as CERB — was introduced in 2020 to support Canadians who were financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns. Initially, eligibility checks were put on hold to get funds to individuals as fast as possible.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.