Identity and Identity Crime: Overview

overview

identity?

pre-modern

apparitions

conmen

compulsives

honour

survivors?

cards

resumes

pollution

tools

statistics

costs

responses

insurance

Aust law

other law

memoirs

fiction

forensics

shadows

true lies

dead souls

gender

race

age

welfare

missing

officials

registration

character

biography

landmarks

related
Guides:

Security &
InfoCrime

Governance

Information
Economy

Consumers
& Trust

overview

This guide considers the nature of 'identity' and a range of identity offences that have variously been characterised as identity theft, identity fraud and identity pollution.

It covers -

identity - what is 'identity' and what are identity offences?
pre-modern - ID crime in pre-industrial societies
apparitions - ID offences from 1800 to the 1930s
conmen - contemporary conmen (and women)
compulsives - identity crime attributable to psychological needs rather than profit
honour - appropriation of military honours and status
survivor fraud
cards - cheque and credit card or debit card fraud
resumes - massaging CVs in a credentialist society
pollution - identity pollution by political rivals, ex-lovers and others concerned to damage a reputation rather than gain a financial benefit
tools - 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 costs 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
memoirs - identity offences and memoirs
fiction - identity crime in literature and film
forensics - identifying and prosecuting identity crime
shadows - fake deaths and other perspectives
true lies - the business of selling fake identities
dead souls - from Gogol to Mosul
gender - shapeshifting from the Maid of Orleans to contemporary conundrums
race - ethnicity, identity and identity offences in totalitarian and liberal democratic regimes
age as identity , including 'photoshop kids' and other age-related offences
welfare fraud and other entitlement-related offence
missing people and ubiquitous identification
officials - impersonation of police and other representatives of the state
registration - questions about pervasive registration as the basis for civil identity in advanced and emerging economies
character -
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" and identity management

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 June 2008 the Australian Bureau of Statistics identified the personal cost of identity fraud as around $976 million in the preceding year. It suggested that there were 499,500 victims of 'identity fraud' (of whom 383,300 were victims of credit or bank card fraud) and 124,000 victims of 'identity theft'.

In addition to readily identifiable financial costs, identity offences 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.

impacts

What are the impacts of identity offences?

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.

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