What Can Someone Do With My Drivers License Number
Silvana's identity theft nightmare started in such a simple way — juggling shopping and 2 immature children at a department store, she left her mobile phone behind in a instance containing her credit card and driver's licence.
Key points:
- Identity theft is a growing trouble in Australia, costing $2.two billion per year
- Some jurisdictions don't let victims modify driver's licence details if they are stolen
- Driver'south licences are one of the primary forms of ID used when applying for finance
As before long equally she realised her mistake she cancelled her telephone contract and credit card, and deleted her phone data remotely.
Just she was likewise late. Scammers had already managed to secure what is known in the security industry as the "gold ticket" to her identity — the driver's licence — and rapidly moved to exploit information technology.
For Silvana, whose surname the ABC has chosen not 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 proper noun.
But then an fifty-fifty worse realisation dawned on her — for the balance of her life she would remain exposed to this blazon of attack.
She lives in a state, Western Commonwealth of australia, where information technology is incommunicable to alter her driver's licence number, and that number has now been permanently compromised.
Her example has chosen into question how ready Australia'south authorities are to deal with the rising threat of identity theft, with experts saying the system is failing victims and leaving people vulnerable to further corruption.
A blackness volume of victim's details
A cautious person past nature, Silvana thought it was a hoax when months after she lost her cards she received an electronic mail from the WA Law.
Her brother, a cyber-security expert, looked over the electronic mail and told her she should call law.
A detective told her that her driver'south licence number and an unknown debit bill of fare had been plant past constabulary 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 card in her name.
When she contacted her banking company she learned an entire profile had been created in her name, along with the $100,000 credit application.
"That was a shock to my system, I was really actually distressed," she said.
"Y'all simply go to your local store, you lose … your wallet or your telephone, and you're suddenly exposed to this kind of fraud happening right here in WA.
Silvana, who works in contract management, is diligent with her data.
She has two-gene authentication set up on her accounts and takes care to not hand out her personal details, even to government departments, without the advisable dominance.
It has taken many hours of her life to try to rectify the impairment, including meetings at her bank and working with the WA Police force, to help her remove the fraudulent loan application from her credit history.
But her driver's licence number, which was used to apply for the loan in the start place, could not be changed considering she lives in WA, which issues ane licence number per person for life.
All other jurisdictions, aside from the Northern Territory, allow victims of identity offense to alter their driver's licence number to protect themselves once their identity is compromised.
But experts say the process 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 afterward the crime.
Driver's licence the 'golden ticket' for criminals
Christine Jackson, security counsellor and middle manager for IDcare, a national support service for victims of identity crime, said when a driver'due south licence became compromised, criminals could open up upward lines of credit in the victim's proper noun.
"So often that will exist phone accounts, mobile phones are purchased, they might purchase iPads, tablets and things like that as well — then it can rack upwardly to a lot of money," she said.
"So they'll lay low for a while, wait for you to clean it up when y'all find out what's gone on, then they'll reinvest in that compromised document."
Ms Jackson said driver's licences were sought after by criminals because they were regularly used to verify identities past government departments, phone companies and banks.
"They beloved it when they grab a driver's licence because that'south the golden ticket for them," she said.
She said transport departments left people exposed by delivering driver'due south licences through the postal service, despite them existence 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 get for it," she said.
It was difficult to protect someone's identity when their licence was stolen because of different rules across the country.
"It's a big problem. What nosotros're actually talking nigh is you can supercede your driver's licence, but when you do, information technology doesn't [necessarily] change the commuter's licence number," she said.
"The number is what'due south used when organisations are approving credit applications and so if yous go a replacement driver's licence and it has the same number, it doesn't exercise anything [to protect you]."
But she said fifty-fifty if the licence number could exist changed, as was the case in many states, it but offered partial protection.
"Non every organisation checks the validity of the certificate and this is the big trouble," she said.
Driver'south licences just one piece of the puzzle
Queensland Academy of Applied science senior lecturer Cassandra Cross, who has researched victim impacts of online fraud, said commuter's licences were part of a greater challenge around identity theft and applied science in Australia.
"Whilst we tin can go to the bank and change our credit card details fairly easily, if we think almost other identity credentials such as driver's licences in some cases, but as well engagement of nativity, social security numbers … biometric details that are out there most individuals, they pose meaning challenges considering they are fixed," she said.
She said victims experienced significant trauma after the fraud took place, having to tell their story over and over once again to banks, telcos and government.
"It tin be a very frustrating process for an individual to take to contact diverse agencies to attempt to establish how their identity has been used by some other person, and so 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 arrangement for victims.
A spokeswoman for the WA Department of Transport (DoT) said it was aware of an increasing number of identity fraud cases nationally.
She said the section was is in the process of implementing a national agreement between states that would help protect people from identity fraud.
This would include sharing citizen'south biometric driver'south licence information with national agencies, a motion heavily criticised past privacy experts.
The spokeswoman said a decision on implementing changeable commuter's licence numbers would not be made until a policy and systems review for that agreement had been completed. No timeframe was provided.
"It should be noted that while a driver's licence is oftentimes used as a de facto identity certificate, its original purpose was proof of a person's authority to bulldoze," the spokeswoman said.
"Currently, due to integration with other country government record systems, DoT is unable to change the number of a person's driver'due south licence on the driver's licence annals."
ID theft a $2-billion-a-year business
Co-ordinate to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 126,300 people were victims of identity theft in the 2014–15 financial year, the latest statistics available.
Despite older people often being targeted by scammers, information technology was in fact people aged 25–34 who were most probable to fall victim to identity theft, followed past those aged 35–44 and those aged xv–24.
A 2022 report from the Attorney-General's department estimated identity crime cost Australians $ii.2 billion per year.
Information technology toll another $390 1000000 per year for prevention and response activities past government.
An Australian Plant of Criminology (AIC) 2022 report constitute one in four Australians reported being a victim of identity crime at some point in their lifetimes, while 13 per cent had been victims in the by 12 months.
The report found those numbers had both risen from 2022 levels and victims spent an average of 23 hours repairing the damage caused.
Last year 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 November last year.
This and the submissions fabricated to the review are yet to be made public.
Posted , updated
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-06/drivers-licence-identity-theft-leaves-victims-exposed/11439668
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