An arm and a leg

Any person who owns a debit, credit, petrol or store card, a driver’s license, identity document or cell phone can be the victim of identity theft and fraud.

Criminals can use these to fraudulently obtain credit cards, open accounts, rent apartments, purchase cell phone contracts or even buy vehicles and property — all in your name.

And the scariest thing about identity theft is that the crime does not stop with the theft of your identity. Having your store card stolen, for example, is only the first step in a long list of fraudulent deeds that may follow.

“It is often months, and in many cases years, before the victim discovers something is amiss,” says Ian Labram of Research & Product Development at Cre8, a division of Alexander Forbes.

Identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime in the USA where over 700 000 identities are stolen each year costing in excess of US$24-billion.

The most famous identity theft case in the US was restaurant worker Abraham Abdallah who used the internet at his local library to gain confidential information along with the bank and credit card details of Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and George Soros.

One of South Africa’s more famous cases involved the three week detention of a 72-year-old South African charity worker mistakenly identified as international fraudster Derek Sykes. The 72-year-old South African was only released when the FBI arrested the real Sykes in Las Vegas.

“While South Africa does not keep national statistics on identity theft, research shows that not only is it on the rise, but it is becoming ever more sophisticated as hackers increasingly use the internet to gain individual’s personal details,” says Labram.

In South Africa credit card holders are most often the victims of identity theft, with victims only detecting the fraud when they receive their credit card statements.

Your bank is only responsible for losses that you incur from when you report the crime and cancel your card. You will have to therefore probably bear the brunt for amounts taken from your credit card before you report it stolen.

Increasingly, criminals don’t even need to have possession of your card. Just having the numbers is enough to open accounts, make payments and purchase goods over the telephone.

Theft of South African ID documents is very prevalent

Credit cards aside, theft of South African ID documents is also very prevalent. An investigation by the Sunday Times revealed that temporary and permanent ID documents were being sold illegally by Home Affairs officials for as little as R100.

This has global fraud implications. For example, people from countries like Pakistan, which quickly exhausts its annual quota of immigrants to the United Kingdom, come to South Africa to fraudulently acquire a local ID. They then apply, as South African citizens, for United Kingdom residence — making use of South Africa’s United Kingdom immigration quota.

Labram predicts that it will become even easier for criminals to obtain people’s identities thanks to innovation in electronic communication, purchasing and transaction management.

Operating a bank account, using a credit or petrol card or having to regularly divulge identity details to effect the most basic transactions and inquiries is, however, unavoidable.

Even if only the bank has all your details this is already one party too many. Bank employees are increasingly fingered for sharing credit card details with fraudsters.

Analysis shows that victims of identity fraud incur the greatest costs after the crime is discovered, especially in legal costs incurred to clear the victim’s name and re-establish a debt free status.

As such, Labram and his team provide the legal expertise to guide clients through the bureaucratic nightmare involved in clearing your name after it has been associated with fraud.

“We also cover lost wages when victims have to take off work to recreate a lifetime of clean identity documentation,” concludes Labram.

RSS

de.li.cious

facebook