Identity Crime profile: Costs

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costs

This page explores the cost of identity crime.

It covers -

introduction
dissecting identity crime costs
consumers
businesses
regulators and enforcers - identifying the cost of justice or justifying the bureaucracies
offenders - who are the criminals, where are they located and how much do they make?
winners, losers and bystanders

It is complemented by a broader discussion of the cost of data losses, here.

introduction

The preceding page of this profile highlighted estimates of the cost of identity crime, online and offline. Those estimates vary significantly and it is not uncommon for a particular organisation to present substantially different figures to discrete audiences.

The basis of many estimates - or guesstimates - is unfortunately unclear. The nature of much identity fraud (with non-disclosure because of corporate or personal embarrassment) and definitional disagreements mean that a comprehensive and rigorous costing is probably unachievable. Some costs do not involve direct financial losses or investment in prevention but from the perspective of an individual identity may be meaningful because they involve time, annoyance, stress and loss of opportunities.

The following paragraphs instead discuss some types of costs regarding identity theft/fraud, particularly in the Australian environment where there are arguably greater expectations about corporate responsibility.

next page (responses)