Identity Crime profile: Overview

overview

historical

conmen

paper

resumes

digital

statistics

costs

responses

insurance

Aust law

other law

fiction

forensics

shadows

true lies

landmarks

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overview

This profile considers identity theft, identity fraud and identity management, supplementing guides elsewhere on the site.

It covers -

historical background - ID fraud/theft before the dot
contemporary cons - contemporary conmen and women, compulsives and appropriation of military honours.
paper and plastic money - cheque and credit card fraud
resumes - resume massaging in a credentialist society
the digital era - online ID theft and fraud, including 'joe jobs', appropriation of email addresses and phishing
statistics - Australian and overseas estimates of the incidence and severity of identity crimes
costs - an analysis of the cost of identity crime
responses - verification, education, document disposal, 'identity management', biometrics and other mechanisms for managing identity crime
Aust law - Australian federal and state/territory legislation regarding ID theft/fraud
overseas legislation - law in New Zealand, UK, Canada, US and other jurisdictions
fiction - identity crime in literature and film ... and by authors
forensics - identifying and prosecuting identity crime
shadows - ubiquitous identification, missing people and other perspectives
true lies - the business of selling fake identities
landmarks - major ID thefts and frauds from the early Middle Ages to 2005

introduction

The supposed mutability of identity in the digital era - encapsulated in the famous New Yorker cartoon "on the internet no one knows that you are a dog" - and the pervasiveness of payment systems that do not require fact to face contact (or much authentication) has been reflected in concern about "identity theft" and "identity fraud".

The US Federal Trade Commission for example claimed that identity-related offences cost cost US consumers and businesses around US$53 billion in 2002. Estimates of the cost in Australia vary from around $2 billion to $6 billion in 2002-03. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimated the overall cost of fraud in Australia as more than $5 billion per year, almost a third of the $19 billion "total cost of crime".

In addition to readily identifiable financial costs, identity fraud/theft affects -

victims (whose identities have been stolen)
financial and other institutions
law enforcement agencies

It facilitates the commission of other types of crime such as people smuggling and of course has been associated with problems such as drug trafficking and terrorism.

identity theft

Characterisation of identity crime varies widely, with inconsistent use of terms such as identity theft, impersonation, fraud, forgery, false pretences, spoofing, misappropriation and even identity pollution, vandalism and assault.

Identity Theft may be characterised as assuming the identity of someone else. As such it has a long and often colourful history, from the days when individuals claimed to be the Son of God (or other relatives) or royalty - typically having miraculously survived murderous attention by Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, Richard III or Robespierre and emerged to claim the throne of France, Russia or England. Difficulty with authentication and the desire to believe (irrespective of signs to the contrary) meant that multiple imposters were often common.

A classic example is the thirty of so individuals claiming to be the Dauphin Louis - otherwise thought to have perished in prison during the French Revolution after his father Louis XVI met Madame Guillotine. One claimant was described as improbably "of negro appearance, with frizzy hair and slightly mad", although presumably more sane than some of his advocates.

The bureaucratisation of Western cultures over the past two hundred years has seen a shift from blood to signifiers of authority (eg the second-hand army uniform that successfully allowed tailor Wilhelm Voigt to commandeer Kopenick town hall at the beginning of last century) and thence to mundane identifiers such as AFNs and Social Security Numbers.

Economically significant ID theft now does not involve supposed heirs of Nicholas II or missing English baronets, miraculously emerging in Australia after drowning off Patagonia. It instead involves misuse of your credit card or cheque book, since in the digital era your identity is embodied in information rather than flesh - something that is explored in the Privacy guide and Surveillance & Authentication profile on this site.

We are also starting to see what is generously described as 'spoofing' or 'joe jobs': email or even sites that purport to emanate from a public figure or private individual. That misuse of someone else's name and email address may be used to defeat restrictions on spam. It may also be used to damage a reputation, with the supposed author being incorrectly assigned responsibility for racist or other offensive comments.

Various typologies of ID crime have been suggested, reflecting different positions in the enforcement (or academic/media feeding) chain. One of the more useful categorisations suggests that in relation to financial services we can differentiate between

- short-term Identity Access
- Account Theft
- Application Fraud
- broader Identity Appropriation

Identity Access involves appropriating someone's identity for quick access to existing financial or other accounts. Typically the thief uses an individual's information to purchase services or products through either a physical credit card (eg stolen from the individual and used to rack up purchases before the financial institution queries unusual spending patterns) or that card's account number and expiration date (eg carbons from credit card slips), with the victim discovering that the account has been access when studying a monthly billing statement or online report.

Account Theft may occur over a longer time frame when a stolen identity is used to take possession of an existing account by changing existing address details. The theft has typically involved mechanisms such as thieves intercepting mail from letterboxes or removing it from an individual's possessions, thereby gaining information needed to change the address on credit card and bank accounts. Victims often attribute missing statements to loss in the postal system and discover the theft when a credit card is declined because the thief has maxed-out the card.

Application Fraud involves unauthorised creation of new accounts through a stolen identity, with the victim sometimes not aware of the theft because financial statements are mailed to a new address used by the thief. The theft is often discovered only when a collection company seeks recovery action or applications for new credit are rejected because of the hidden debt.

Identity Assumption has been a literary and Hollywood favourite, with the thief assuming the victim's identity, sometimes as a cover for the commission of non-financial crimes. Proponents of biometrics and identity reference/validation services have claimed for example that criminals have used forged driver registration documents - the de facto official and commercial ID papers in countries such as Australia - that feature the victim's name and other characteristics but the villain's photo.

Such victims supposedly most often discover the imposture when law enforcement agencies approach them about offences that they have supposedly committed. Other offenders have 'rebirthed' dead children, assuming an identity after obtaining death certificates.

Other observers have argued that damage to reputation may be as important as any pecuniary loss through misuse of a bank account or credit card, with for example long-term damage to consumer credit ratings (discussed in a separate profile) or loss of esteem in a particular community through appropriation of a real name or avatar used in an online forum.

identity fraud

Identity Fraud, an associated offence, has attracted less media attention. It can take two forms

Most commonly, it involves an individual 'massaging' data: adding a degree or two, deleting a conviction or a divorce, adding a few years of age (popular among teenagers facing age-based access restrictions) or taking a few years off once the individual reaches a certain age.

As such it is popular among all classes, from highschool kids enhancing ID passes to get into nightclubs through to company directors and members of parliament buffing their profiles.

More rarely, some individuals have created a new identity altogether - one that is sometimes used to live an otherwise law-abiding existence rather than as the basis for theft. Self reinvention is arguably a central theme of US culture, where - like people in the rest of the world - many have dreamed of shucking off an inconvenient past and starting afresh, often with the aid of a glossier resume and fewer wrinkles.

As discussed later in this profile, statistics about theft/fraud are problematical. In 1985 the US Congress for example noted indications that up to 500,000 false tertiary degrees are in 'use' in the USA (eg were cited for employment purposes), that 10,000 false medical degrees are in use and that 30% of employees were hired with 'massaged' credentials.

The Australasian Centre for Policing Research has suggested uniform definitions -

Identity crime is a generic term with broad scope to describe a wide range of identity-related offences in which a defendant uses a false identity to commit, or facilitate the commission of, a crime.
Identity fraud describes the gaining of money, goods, services or other benefits, or the avoidance of obligations, through the use of a false identity. It includes fraudulently obtaining a financial benefit (eg by credit card skimming), avoidance of taxes or financial loss, and intangible benefits, such as access to citizenship, professional affiliation, and medical services.
Identity theft describes the theft or assumption by one person of another person's identity, whether the other person is alive or dead. It may also extend to the use of a fictitious identity

impacts

What are the impacts of identity theft and fraud?

The shape of identity crime means that impacts encompass -

the deeply personal (parents of dead children discovering that someone has appropriated their child's identity)
erosion of someone's good name (use of an email address for spam) without direct economic impact
evasion of behavioural restrictions (using a doctored ID card to enter a nightclub while underage)
illegal receipt of welfare benefits
scams against consumers and businesses (eg a forged cheque or stolen credit card) that result in direct financial loss
erosion of someone's profile, with theft of identity resulting an individual losing a good credit rating or even employment opportunities
evasion of surveillance and law enforcement (eg fake identities for terrorists and other criminals)
exploitation of 'credentialism' for economic or other benefit.

Later pages of this profile explore estimates of economy-wide economic impacts.

next page (historical)