Technology Making Fraud Easy

The Sunday Age

Sunday April 4, 2004

Garry Barker, Technology Editor, Nassim Khadem

In Australia, frauds committed through faked or stolen identities - credit cards, bank accounts, driving licences - are estimated to cost the country between $1.5 billion and $4 billion annually, and the criminal take is increasing.

Modern technology has made fraud easier. High quality computer-driven printing systems mean counterfeiters no longer need to laboriously etch copper printing plates. They do it photographically with the kind of computer and software anyone can buy for less than $4000.

Credit cards are almost as easy to counterfeit. Two years ago, a young Taiwanese man was found touring Victoria with more than 300 of them in his luggage.

Cards are often stolen by duping people into thinking they have been ``swallowed" by an automatic teller, a process involving insertion of a fine plastic envelope into the slot of the machine so it cannot read the card.

The criminal could use a video camera to record the bank customer punching in his PIN, or just stand behind them, ``help" by suggesting they enter their PIN again, then when they have left, retrieve the card and use it to buy goods or withdraw money. The card could then be ``rebirthed" by reprogramming its magnetic strip with information stolen by ``skimming". Card ``skimmers", usually dishonest waiters and shop assistants in the pay of counterfeiting gangs, lift and store information from credit cards using under-the-counter card readers readily available from Asian mail order stores.

The 100-point system, used by banks to authenticate a person's identity, is equally open to fraudulent manipulation. Utility bills and even driving licences can be counterfeited with relative ease and used to establish a bank account and then a credit card account in a victim's name.

Identities can be conjured in this way using information obtained by ``dumpster diving" - stealing documents discarded in rubbish bins - or stolen from mail boxes.

A practice called ``phishing" has become common. An email purporting to come from a person's bank asks them to update their details online on what is a faked bank website. Hundreds of people (the banks decline to give numbers) have had money extracted from their accounts in this manner.

CASE STUDY

Ms G (declined to use real name) was a victim of identity theft and, as is most often the case, knew the perpetrator who tried to steal her identity.

A few years ago, Ms G rented a caravan on her property to a woman and kindly gave her access to the house so that she could use the bathroom while she was interstate.

During her absence, the woman accessed Ms G's personal documents.

A few years later, police contacted Ms G.

Unbeknown to her this woman, over the course of a few years, had applied for two store cards and a telephone account in Ms G's name and incurred huge debts.

Ms G was confronted by police, debt collectors, and lawyers threatening to take her to court.

She has spent years going back and forth between agencies trying to clear her name. --

Nassim Khadem

© 2004 The Sunday Age

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