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identity
and identity crime?
This page considers the nature of 'identity' in contemporary
society and past societies.
It also introduces concepts such as identity crime, identity
theft, identity pollution and identity offences as background
to more detailed discussion in subsequent pages.
It covers -
introduction
Identity has proved to be a philosophical, administrative
and legal conundrum over two millennia - marked by official
enthusiasms for such measures as biometrics, branding,
ubiquitous identity documents ('don't go out without your
ID card') and uniforms or other signifiers of authority.
It is reflected in a plethora of statutes aimed at preventing
people from pretending to be someone else (from mediaeval
sumptuary legislation through to contemporary Australian
penalties for impersonating a policeman) and preventing
subversion of identity mechanisms (excision of the hand
that engaged in forgery, piercing of the tongue that falsely
claimed to belong to a royal official, inclusion of photographs
in driver licences and passports).
It has also been reflected in a range of activities, some
of which involve sociopaths, others of which are likely
to involve your children or colleagues. Some are distinctly
illegal. Some are generally accepted as benign, for example
responding to data mining by providing spoof online registration
data (the 90 year old Turkish millionaire resident in
Antarctica).
Susan Wiley's 'Deception and Detection in Psychiatric
Diagnosis' in 21(4) Psychiatric Clinics of North America
(2005), 869-893, commented that
In all relationships private and public, lies are used
to protect or promote one's self or others. There are
institutional lies to sell, to protect turf, to improve
competition, to motivate staff, and so forth. There
are lies in politics, advertising, and education. There
are even lies in medicine: doctors to patients and patients
to their doctors. Deception is plentiful—it is
there all the time; we just do not like to look at it.
what is identity
That range derives from the nature of identity, particularly
the nature of identity in urban environments within advanced
economies.
Many people conceptualise identity as static and readily
discernable, implicit in notions that 'I am who I am ...
and everyone can see that without much difficulty'. In
reality identity is far more mutable. In most circumstances
it is a manifestation of social relationships, not of
innate characteristics.
Those relationships may be as fundamental (and thus invisible)
as gender or age, although even those attributes may be
'negotiated' through mechanisms such as clothing, a haircut
and application of Photoshop to a student ID card. They
may instead be as malleable as possession of a key or
clipboard, with a long history of incidents in which scammers
were provided with access to a restricted facility or
removed assets merely because they wore the right uniform
and looked authoritative. If your identity is your credit
card you may face difficulty in environments where a transaction
does not necessitate directly sighting the plastic or
the person at the checkout is so alienated that Mickey
Mouse could be providing the signature.
Identity is performed. As a result it can be subverted.
offences
Identity offences abound and as the following pages indicate
have taken a variety of forms, from hackers wholesaling
stolen credit card details to honey-tongued conmen and
women who recurrently sold the Eiffel Tower or 'true'
stories of their triumph over adversity.
Statute and case law regarding those offences is similarly
diverse.
As the final paragraphs of this page indicate, there is
considerable disagreement within and between governments
regarding the conceptualisation of identity offences (sometimes
narrowly construed as only involving financial loss) and
corresponding terminology.
This site suggests that a common element to all offences
is simply 'identity' rather than financial injury and
that accordingly we can discern three broad groups of
offences -
- identity
theft
- identity
enhancement
- identity
pollution
identity theft
Identity theft has been hyped as the "crime of the
century" or even "of the millennium" but
is as old as the hills, discernable since the beginning
of history and evident in tales such as Rebekah and Jacob's
deception of Isaac.
Identity theft involves appropriation of someone else's
identity for personal gain.
That appropriation might involve unauthorised use of a
chequebook, a credit card or a deposit account. It might
involve ordering/receiving goods or services in the guise
of someone else, for wining and dining through Europe
after persuading your hosts that you are a famous film
star, director, author or political figure. It might involve
using someone else's name to commit a crime; some of the
nastier identity thieves have used the names of dead children.
identity enhancement
Identity enhancement involves action intended to provide
the offender with some advantage, often a financial advantage.
It is distinguishable from identity theft because the
fraud involves the offender's own identity rather than
appropriation of someone else's identity. It may be additive
or substractive.
Subtractive identity enhancement involves deletion of
inconvenient, even deeply stigmatised, attributes from
a curriculum vitae or other representation -
for example airbrushing a criminal conviction, bankruptcy
or other problem from a cv.
The vicissitudes of major corporations whose executives
are revealed to have lied about their personal history
may provide hours of amusement (were the headhunters
asleep?) and welfare fraud (omitting to report employment
in order to receive income support) may be an acceptable
cost of the liberal democratic state but health scandals
in Australia and elsewhere indicate the seriousness of
'cooking' a cv.
Would you blithely go under the knife if you knew, for
example, that the surgeon had been struck off the medical
register in another jurisdiction over egregious malpractice
involving the death or serious disfigurement of numerous
patients?
Additive identity enhancement, as the term suggests, involves
improving the offender's public persona by adding the
bling that is desirable in a credentialist society - unearned
academic or professional qualifications (why stop at an
MBA when you can give yourself a PhD?), military honours,
sports trophies and awards from peers.
At a more mundane level, as practiced by many students,
it can involve adding a few years to their proof of age
cards or other identity documents in order to get through
the doors at nightclubs or other age-restricted venues.
Enhancement offences are illustrated through resume fraud,
discussed in more detail later
in this profile
identity pollution
Identity pollution takes two forms.
In contrast to the preceding categories of offences, much
identity pollution is typically not concerned with financial
gain and not concerned to airbrush the offender's public
profile. Instead it seeks to erode or destroy a victim's
public reputation and self-esteem.
That erosion has traditionally featured mechanisms such
as letters and statements that purport to come from a
political or commercial rival, the expectation being that
third parties will mistakenly believe that the falsehood
peddled by the offender comes from the victim and will
accordingly shun the victim.
Identity pollution in recent years has involved 'joe job'
email messages and faxed media releases. It has also involved
fake blogs, wikipedia entries and social network service
profiles (in which, for example, a former lover in the
guise of the victim 'reveals' that he likes to strangle
kittens, engage in unorthodox sexual activities and steal
money from his employer).
Some identity pollution - perhaps the pollution most frequently
encountered by people online - involves using someone
else's identity to persuade a recipient to read (or merely
to receive) an email
or other communication. It is exemplified by spammers
engaging in the forgery
of email headers in an effort to subvert filtering (eg
network operators often do not block messages that purport
to come from trusted personal contacts or organisations)
and to encourage a recipient to open the message that
has not been filtered out by the network operator or by
personal filter lists.
Identity pollution is discussed in more detail later
in this profile.
other perspectives
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 should
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, 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 suggested
uniform definitions in 2004 and 2006 (PDF)
-
- 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
orientations
The literature on identity, on particular types of offences
and on specific incidents is huge. It is, however, often
quite narrow and frequently anecdotal, with few works
offering an integrated exposition of legal principles,
psychology, risk and other aspects.
The following pages (and other parts of this site dealing
with areas such as passports,
biometrics, privacy
and forgery) highlight
works of special relevance for understanding issues and
trends or particular incidents. Points of entry to the
literature include -
- identity
as a social or psychological construct
John Finnis - Universality, Personal and Social
Identity, and Law (University of Oxford Faculty
of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series, Working
Paper No 05/2008), (2008)
Eric Olsen - 'Personal Identity' in The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (2002), online here
Linda Alcoff [ed] - Identity Politics Reconsidered
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2006)
Gail Moloney and Iain Walker [ed] - Social Representations
and Identity: Content, Process & Power (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan 2007)
Charles Taylor - Sources of the Self: The Making
of the Modern Identity (Cambridge: Harvard Uni
Press 1992)
Martha Minow - Not Only For Myself: Identity, Politics,
and Law (New York: New Press 1999)
- identity
as a legal and political construct
Henry French & Jonathan Barry [ed] - Identity
and Agency in England, 1500-1800 (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan 2004)
Gary Marx - 'Fraudulent Identification and Biography'
in New Directions in the Study of Law and Social
Control (New York: Plenum 1990) edited by David
Altheide and 'Identity and Anonymity: Some Conceptual
Distinctions and Issues for Research' in Documenting
Individual Identity (Princeton: Princeton Uni Press
2001) edited by Jane Caplan & John Torpey
Claire Hill - 'The Law and Economics of Identity in
32 Queen's Law Journal (2007), 389-445
John Torpey - The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance,
Citizenship & the State (Cambridge: Cambridge
Uni Press 2000)
- identity
management
Erving Goffman - Stigma: Notes on the Management
of Spoiled Identity (Harmondsworth: Pelican 1968)
and The presentation of self in everyday life
(Harmondsworth: Penguin 1971)
-
state identification regimes
Jane Caplan & John Torpey [ed] - Documenting
Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices
since the French Revolution (Princeton: Princeton
Uni Press 2001)
- signifiers
in contemporary and past societies
Valentin Groebner - Who Are You? Identification,
Deception and Surveillance in Early Modern Europe
(New York: Zone 2007)
Jane Caplan [ed] - Written on the Body: The Tattoo
in European and American History (Princeton: Princeton
Uni Press 2000)
Alan Hunt - Governance of the consuming passions:
a history of sumptuary law (New York: St Martins
1996)
- identity
offences
Peter Millett - On Villainy, Money Loops and Identity
Theft (St Lucia: Uni of Queensland Press 2008)
Suresh Cuganesan & David Lacey - Identity Fraud
in Australia: An evaluation of its Nature, Cost and
Extent (Brisbane: SIRCA 2003)
Gary Gordon, Donald Rebovich, Kyung-Seok Choo &
Judith Gordon - Identity Fraud Trends and Patterns:
Building a Data-Based Foundation for Proactive Enforcement
(Utica: Utica College Center for Identity Management
& Information Protection 2007)
- technological
and administrative challenges
Stephen Kent & Lynette Millett [eds] - IDs -
Not That Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems
(Washington: US National Academies Press 2002)
Lynn LoPucki - ‘Human Identification Theory and
the Identity Theft Problem' in 80(1) Texas Law Review
(2001), 89-134
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