Reuters reports that Canadians distrust stores that ask them for personal information, showing greater awareness of the dangers of identity theft.

One in two people surveyed by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said they questioned a retailer’s request for information such as a phone number or postal code, asking why it was necessary and how it would be used.

“Our personal information is increasingly invaluable in the marketplace, and I am very pleased to hear that consumers are taking charge and questioning requests for their information,” said Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.

Forty-five percent said they had refused to hand over any information whatsoever and 13 percent deliberately gave false information.

Safety and security concerns were the top reason for protecting personal information, the survey found. Some consumers said they simply worried about how the information might be used while others expressed concerns specifically about identity theft, fraud and computer hackers.

Privacy officials aim to use the poll results to boost awareness among shoppers and retailers of Canada’s privacy laws.

Central Valley Business Times reports that victims of identity theft may have a better opportunity to obtain justice under a new law in California that allows identity theft cases to be prosecuted in the county where the victim lives – which is not always the location of where the crime occurs.

“This common sense legislation will lead to more prosecutions of this terrible crime and anyone that commits or even thinks of committing identity theft should know that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in signing the bill.

Current law, SB 612 by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, allows for the prosecution of identity theft in the county where the theft occurred or the county in which information was illegally used, both of which may be hundreds of miles away from the victim’s home. The new law permits local county prosecutors to pursue a resident’s identity theft case even when the crime may have occurred somewhere else.

CBS4 reports that Sheldon Chrysler of Denver, a recent victim of identity theft, filed a federal lawsuit against DirectTV, AT&T, and the credit reporting companies when he couldn’t get his name cleared on his own.

Chrysler found out he was a victim of identity theft in December 2006 when he went to apply for a loan. The collections were for accounts with AT&T, another phone company and DirectTV — accounts that Chrysler never opened.

He filed criminal reports in Colorado and Michigan, put a credit fraud alert on his accounts, and contacted the companies as well as the credit reporting companies. But still he his credit still showed the bad accounts.

So he filed a lawsuit in federal court and won. The companies settled the case and cleared his credit.

Jocelyn Kirsch is set to plead guilty to identity theft but prosecutors say that this hasn’t stopped her from continuing to steal identities. The Seattle Times reports that she was recently accused of stealing an acquaintance’s credit card in California, where she has been living while awaiting her federal plea.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan this month called Kirsch and her Ivy League boyfriend, co-defendant Edward Anderton, the “poster children for identity theft.” The duo stole identities from friends and acquaintances to fund a year-long shopping spree, which included $120,000 in travel, goods and services.

Kirsch has not yet been charged in the California theft. But the incident could enhance the probable two- to five-year sentence she faces in the pending case, said prosecutors. She plans to plead guilty to the five-count information, which includes aggravated identity theft, money laundering and fraud charges.

Yahoo has filed suit against an unnamed group of phishers, alleging that they tricked thinking that they won a prize from Yahoo in an effort to steal their passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information.

According to the Associated Press, Yahoo filed the lawsuit on May 16 in U.S. District Court in New York City under federal trademark law, federal anti-spam law and other state laws. The company stated that the defendants pretended to be Yahoo representatives, sending out e-mails claiming recipients had won prizes ranging from a few thousand to a million dollars and instructing them to click on a link or forward personal information to a “Yahoo lottery coordinator” to get their prize.

Some recipients were instructed to contact another party to arrange for the prize payment, Yahoo said in the filing, and this other party would charge them “hundreds of dollars in various processing and mailing charges in order to complete the payment process.”
Such “phishing” scams are meant to trick consumers into sharing financial information.

While the defendants’ identities are unknown right now, Yahoo thinks that information acquired during a discovery period from third-party e-mail service companies will lead to their identification.