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- The use of fake names, ID cards, falsified or forged documents, and lying about their own age to simply "hide" their true identity is sometimes also regarded as identity fraud.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_fraud
People also ask
What is identity fraud?
What is identity fraud & how can you prevent it?
What is the difference between identity theft and identity fraud?
Is identity fraud a criminal offence?
What is a claimed identity?
What can a fraudster do with my identity details?
Identity theft happens when fraudsters access enough information about someone’s identity (such as their name, date of birth, current or previous addresses) to commit a fraud. Identity theft can take place whether the victim is alive or deceased.
- Protect your address. If you start getting post for someone you don’t know, try to find out why. Lenders use the electoral roll to check who’s registered as living at a particular address.
- Protect your bank accounts. Be extremely wary of unsolicited phone calls, letters or emails from your bank or other financial institution asking you to confirm your
- Protect your phone. Never reply to unsolicited text messages, even to get them stopped. Simply delete them. Sign up to the Telephone Preference Service to prevent marketing phone calls.
- Protect your computer. Keep your computer security programs, such as antivirus and firewall, up to date. Make sure your web browser and operating system are the latest version.
- What is identity
- When to check someone’s identity
- Why you should check someone’s identity
- How to check someone’s identity
- Levels of confidence
- Authoritative sources
- Get evidence of the claimed identity
- Why you should not accept a National Insurance number as proof of identity
- Check the evidence is genuine or valid
An identity is a combination of ‘attributes’ (characteristics) that belong to a person.
A single attribute is not usually enough to tell one person apart from another, but a combination of attributes might be.
You should check someone’s identity if any services you or your organisation has will:
•show a user personal information about themselves, such as their driving licence or passport details
The number of identities being used to commit identity fraud in the UK is growing every year. Some of the most common reasons people or criminal groups commit identity fraud are to:
•access services they’re not entitled to
•get benefits they’re not entitled to
•steal personal, medical or financial information from other identities
•enable organised crime, like human trafficking
•avoid being detected by the police and other authorities
You’ll need to know the ‘claimed identity’ of the person you’re checking. A claimed identity is a combination of information (often a name, date of birth and address) that represents the attributes of whoever a person is claiming to be.
When you have this information, you can find out if the person is who they say they are. This process is known as ‘identity checking’ and is made up of 5 parts:
•get evidence of the claimed identity
•check the evidence is genuine or valid
•check the claimed identity has existed over time
•check if the claimed identity is at high risk of identity fraud
There are 4 different levels of confidence:
•low confidence
•medium confidence
•high confidence
•very high confidence
By reaching a level of confidence:
You might need to check things with an ‘authoritative’ source. To be authoritative for a particular piece of information, the source must make sure:
•the integrity of the information is protected
•the information is up to date
The source must also do one of the following:
•issue evidence, for example the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) issues evidence such as driving licences
•get information from an organisation that issues evidence, for example credit reference agencies can have authoritative information about bank accounts
You can collect:
•physical evidence of the claimed identity (such as an identity document, like a passport)
•digital evidence of the claimed identity (such as information from a personal data store)
You can ask the user to provide the evidence or you can find it yourself, for example by checking a database. If you want to find the evidence yourself, you will need enough information about the claimed identity to be able to match it to their records.
This will prove that the identity exists, but it does not prove that it belongs to the person who’s claiming it. You must do a verification check to find that out.
You can also accept and score a declaration from someone that knows the claimed identity (known as a ‘vouch’) as evidence.
A National Insurance number is not evidence of the claimed identity. It is a reference number that can be used to match a record that relates to a claimed identity. It should not be accepted or used as proof of someone’s identity because:
•a National Insurance number is not private and users share their National Insurance number for legitimate reasons, such as with their employer, pension provider or landlord
•users cannot control what happens to their National Insurance number after it’s been shared and there are limited checks that bind the number to the claimed identity
•some users get a National Insurance number automatically just before they turn 16 without needing to prove their identity first
•there is a known use of National Insurance numbers as part of identity theft and fraud
If your organisation currently accepts National Insurance numbers as proof of someone’s identity, for example as part of an older system or process, you should:
If you want to prove someone’s identity using information that’s based on physical evidence, you must check it’s genuine. This means that the evidence is unlikely to be forged or counterfeit.
Example You could use a PASS card to prove the name and date of birth of the claimed identity. You will need to check the physical security features on the PASS card to do this.
If you’re using digital evidence, you must check the cryptographic security features instead.
Example You could use information from a personal data store to prove the address of a claimed identity. You will need to check that the information is protected by cryptographic security features that can tell you who created the information. You must also check that the information has not been tampered with.
You can also check if the evidence:
•is valid (this means you can find records that show the evidence has been issued)
Identity fraud is a serious criminal offence, with over 226,000 cases reported in 2021 alone according to CyberCrew. In this article, we cover what the offence of identity fraud involves, provide some examples, and answer some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about this crime.
Identity (ID) fraud is the use of a stolen identity to obtain goods or services by deception. A victim can be left feeling extremely vulnerable, especially as the first you learn of ID fraud could be when you get a bill or invoice for something you haven’t ordered, or when you have letters from debt collectors for debts that aren’t yours.
Identity fraud, or ‘ID theft’, involves the use of a person’s stolen details to commit crime. Many victims never find out exactly how someone got hold of their details, and clearing things up afterwards can be costly and stressful.
Answer. Identity theft is when your personal details are stolen and this could lead to identity fraud where a person uses your stolen details in criminal activity to obtain goods and services by deception without your knowledge or permission. Your personal information is a valuable tool to a criminal and you should take steps to protect it.
