Identity theft and fake customers

Identity fraud is on the rise across financial services, ecommerce, public sector, health and the utilities markets. The long-term impact of identity fraud remains to be seen and will hinge largely upon the current efforts across the identity ecosystem made up of service providers, institutions and agencies, data aggregators and consumers themselves.  Law enforcement’s role is generally “after the fact” and reactionary rather than forward looking.

It is generally held that identity thieves are more sophisticated than law enforcement tasked to identify and prosecute the offenders.  Offshore locations of the offenders make it virtually impossible for local law enforcement to locate and prevent continuing operations of these online offenders. 

Making measurement more challenging is the fact that much of the assumed and confirmed losses are associated with charge offs, and lack of common and consistent definitions and confirmation criteria.   The vast majority of identity theft cases are not publicly revealed – leading to underestimation of the issuing in Australian Dollar terms.

There is also increasing cases of physical clients using false credentials to enter into purchase or service contracts.    Examples include false personal or company identification materials, false names given,   false signatures or non typical signatures applied to legal documents without witnesses.    The following will assist to improve collection rates on your contracts / service arrangments:

• Ensure your terms of service / trade terms are in writing.  A proper legal agreement or printed on the back of each invoice is ideal.
• Request and photocopy ID documents such as  a driver’s license or passport.
• Ensure you have a current mobile phone number and email.  Test the number while the client is in front of you.
• Ensure the party you are contracting is an actual entity. eg.  “Dan’s Earthworks” may simply be a trading name.  You actually need to contract with "Dan’s Earthworks Holdings Pty Ltd ABN 11 111 111 111” signed by Dan as Director of the company.   Is Dan also providing a personal guarantee is support of “Dan’s Earthworks Holdings Pty Ltd” ? This should be clearly stated and signed as a guarantor in addition to as Director of the company.
• Ensure the ABN the client gives you is current.  This can be done while completing the paperwork.
• Ensure the client signs and dates the contract in front of you or staff.