Cases of identity theft soar 600pc in just five years By Ben Fenton (Filed: 04/03/2005)
DailyTelegraph As Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, linked the increasing threat of identity theft to the need for ID cards yesterday, new figures showed that the crime had grown by 600 per cent in the past five years. Theft of personal details from dead people is the fastest growing sector within identity fraud, according to Britain's main private sector fraud watchdog, an organisation called Cifas. These details are then used to obtain credit cards, passports and documents that can be used for money laundering, theft or traded for cash. Latest figures showed there were 119,000 cases of identity theft in 2004, an annual increase of 20 per cent in identity theft cases reported by the 240 members of Cifas, which shares information between all Britain's banks, credit card companies and financial services companies. In 1999, there were only 20,000 identity thefts. "This is the fastest growing area of fraud in this country, although we are getting better at countering it," Anne Sheedy, head of operations at Cifas, said. She supported the words of the Home Secretary, linking the burgeoning crime to ID cards. Mr Clarke said: "This survey highlights the fact that identity fraud is one of Britain's fastest growing crimes. "The identity cards Bill that we have put before Parliament will introduce a national, compulsory identity card scheme, linking unique personal biometric information to a secure database. "This will ensure Britain can meet the challenges of the 21st century and provide the public with a safe and convenient way of confirming identity." As early as 1999, Cifas had pointed to ID cards as a necessary weapon in the fight against the crime of identity theft. "False identity fraud is set to become a major issue as Britain has laxer laws on identification of individuals than other EU states where identity cards are routinely carried and used to confirm identity," Cifas said then. Miss Sheedy said yesterday that ID cards were "hugely important" in the fight against identity theft, which a survey by the Consumers' Association discloses has affected one in 10 people in Britain. Cifas estimates that 70,000 families discover each year that the identity of a dead relative has been used to obtain a credit card or other valuables but not all those crimes are reported and do not appear in the overall identity theft figure. The organisation has criticised the Government for not sharing information about deaths with them so that they can be compared to credit and other applications. It is possible that two to three times as many cases might be discovered if such checks were possible, saving �300 million a year. The total cost of identity theft to the financial services industry is at least �180 million. A police officer involved in identity theft investigations, who asked not to be identified, said: "The clever crook will get into the accounts of lots of people and steal regular, small amounts which most of us will ignore as some kind of direct debit or standing order. "Fortunately, most thieves are too lazy or too impatient to do that." According to the police, the classic use of dead people's identities is to obtain a number of credit cards in that name, then pose as a prospective buyer of the deceased person's house and surreptitiously steal their mail while being shown round by an estate agent. Cifas claim that their information sharing system last year allowed the financial sector to save �673 million. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
