What Can Someone Do With My Drivers License
Silvana'south identity theft nightmare started in such a uncomplicated way — juggling shopping and two young children at a department store, she left her mobile phone backside in a case containing her credit card and driver'due south licence.
Key points:
- Identity theft is a growing problem in Australia, costing $2.two billion per year
- Some jurisdictions don't let victims change driver'south licence details if they are stolen
- Driver's licences are one of the main forms of ID used when applying for finance
As shortly as she realised her mistake she cancelled her phone contract and credit card, and deleted her phone data remotely.
But she was too late. Scammers had already managed to secure what is known in the security industry as the "golden ticket" to her identity — the driver'southward licence — and quickly moved to exploit it.
For Silvana, whose surname the ABC has chosen non to publish, the gravity of the situation was revealed when she discovered her bank was poised to requite a $100,000 loan to a criminal in her name.
Only then an fifty-fifty worse realisation dawned on her — for the rest of her life she would remain exposed to this blazon of attack.
She lives in a state, Western Australia, where information technology is impossible to change her driver's licence number, and that number has now been permanently compromised.
Her example has called into question how ready Australia'south authorities are to bargain with the rise threat of identity theft, with experts proverb the system is failing victims and leaving people vulnerable to further abuse.
A black book of victim'due south details
A cautious person by nature, Silvana thought it was a hoax when months after she lost her cards she received an email from the WA Constabulary.
Her brother, a cyber-security expert, looked over the email and told her she should phone call police force.
A detective told her that her driver's licence number and an unknown debit card had been establish past police force in a notebook in a Perth house, along with the details of other victims of suspected fraud.
Pulling her credit history from credit reporting agency Equifax, she learned someone had tried to take out a $100,000 credit carte in her proper name.
When she contacted her banking concern she learned an entire profile had been created in her name, along with the $100,000 credit awarding.
"That was a shock to my organisation, I was actually really distressed," she said.
"You just become to your local shop, you lose … your wallet or your phone, and you're suddenly exposed to this kind of fraud happening right here in WA.
Silvana, who works in contract direction, is diligent with her data.
She has two-cistron authentication prepare on her accounts and takes intendance to not mitt out her personal details, even to government departments, without the advisable authorisation.
Information technology has taken many hours of her life to attempt to rectify the damage, including meetings at her banking concern and working with the WA Police, to help her remove the fraudulent loan application from her credit history.
Merely her driver's licence number, which was used to apply for the loan in the offset place, could non exist changed because she lives in WA, which issues one licence number per person for life.
All other jurisdictions, aside from the Northern Territory, allow victims of identity crime to modify their driver's licence number to protect themselves once their identity is compromised.
Only experts say the procedure is convoluted and more challenging in some states than others, with the onus placed on the victim to repair their credit history and protect themselves after the crime.
Commuter'southward licence the 'golden ticket' for criminals
Christine Jackson, security counsellor and center manager for IDcare, a national support service for victims of identity offense, said when a driver's licence became compromised, criminals could open up up lines of credit in the victim's proper name.
"Then often that will be telephone accounts, mobile phones are purchased, they might purchase iPads, tablets and things like that besides — so it can rack up to a lot of money," she said.
"So they'll lay low for a while, wait for you to clean it up when you observe out what'southward gone on, and and so they'll reinvest in that compromised document."
Ms Jackson said driver'due south licences were sought after by criminals because they were regularly used to verify identities by government departments, telephone companies and banks.
"They dearest it when they grab a driver'south licence because that'south the aureate ticket for them," she said.
She said transport departments left people exposed by delivering driver's licences through the mail service, despite them being the most common identity documents used to commit fraud.
"Letterboxes are targeted by criminals, they know of import stuff gets sent to our letterboxes and they'll go for information technology," she said.
Information technology was hard to protect someone's identity when their licence was stolen considering of different rules across the country.
"Information technology's a large problem. What we're really talking about is you can replace your driver's licence, but when yous exercise, it doesn't [necessarily] change the commuter's licence number," she said.
"The number is what's used when organisations are approving credit applications and then if you go a replacement driver'due south licence and it has the aforementioned number, information technology doesn't do anything [to protect y'all]."
But she said even if the licence number could be changed, as was the case in many states, it only offered partial protection.
"Not every organisation checks the validity of the document and this is the big problem," she said.
Driver'due south licences just i piece of the puzzle
Queensland University of Engineering senior lecturer Cassandra Cross, who has researched victim impacts of online fraud, said commuter's licences were part of a greater claiming around identity theft and technology in Australia.
"Whilst we tin can get to the bank and alter our credit card details adequately hands, if nosotros recall most other identity credentials such equally driver's licences in some cases, simply also date of birth, social security numbers … biometric details that are out at that place most individuals, they pose meaning challenges because they are stock-still," she said.
She said victims experienced significant trauma after the fraud took place, having to tell their story over and over again to banks, telcos and government.
"It tin be a very frustrating procedure for an individual to have to contact various agencies to try to found how their identity has been used past another person, and then the process of having to prove to that agency they are who they are," she said.
She said a national coordinated approach could streamline the system for victims.
A spokeswoman for the WA Department of Transport (DoT) said information technology was aware of an increasing number of identity fraud cases nationally.
She said the department was is in the process of implementing a national agreement betwixt states that would aid protect people from identity fraud.
This would include sharing denizen's biometric driver's licence information with national agencies, a move heavily criticised past privacy experts.
The spokeswoman said a determination on implementing changeable driver'south licence numbers would non be made until a policy and systems review for that understanding had been completed. No timeframe was provided.
"It should exist noted that while a driver's licence is oftentimes used equally a de facto identity document, its original purpose was proof of a person'south authorization to drive," the spokeswoman said.
"Currently, due to integration with other state government record systems, DoT is unable to change the number of a person's commuter'south licence on the driver'south licence register."
ID theft a $2-billion-a-year business
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 126,300 people were victims of identity theft in the 2014–15 fiscal year, the latest statistics bachelor.
Despite older people ofttimes being targeted past scammers, it was in fact people aged 25–34 who were most likely to autumn victim to identity theft, followed by those aged 35–44 and those anile 15–24.
A 2022 report from the Attorney-General'southward department estimated identity criminal offense cost Australians $2.2 billion per year.
It cost another $390 million per year for prevention and response activities past authorities.
An Australian Establish of Criminology (AIC) 2022 report found one in iv Australians reported being a victim of identity crime at some point in their lifetimes, while 13 per cent had been victims in the past 12 months.
The study found those numbers had both risen from 2022 levels and victims spent an boilerplate of 23 hours repairing the damage caused.
Last twelvemonth the Department of Home Affairs launched a review on the national arrangements for the protection and management of identity data which was due to be completed in Nov final year.
This and the submissions fabricated to the review are notwithstanding to be made public.
Posted , updated
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-06/drivers-licence-identity-theft-leaves-victims-exposed/11439668
0 Response to "What Can Someone Do With My Drivers License"
Postar um comentário