The crime of identity theft costs the economy over R40-billion annually and South Africans are not doing enough to protect themselves from it, a credit bureau expert said on Monday.
”Armed with the identity number of someone with a good credit history, it is a simple matter to open numerous accounts in that person’s name and to then go on a spending spree,” said Fred Steffers, managing director of Consumer Profile Bureau, a source of credit information.
Steffers said in a statement that white collar crime and identity theft was on the increase.
Ina van der Merwe, chief executive of Kroll MIE, a credentials verification company, said South Africans provided their identity numbers too readily and did not take care to protect their identity documents.
”There is a widespread lack of understanding of just how valuable this information is. An ID document should be protected just as carefully as a cheque book or a credit card,” she said.
A growing number of people are now being blacklisted after their identity numbers are used by fraud syndicates.
”The better the credit rating of individuals the greater the chances that they are going to become the targets of syndicates who use their identities to defraud business, both in South Africa and internationally,” she said.
Both identity documents and identity numbers should be protected.
”Just as fraudulent purchases can be made quoting a credit card number over the telephone, an ID number can be used in the same manner,” Van der Merwe said.
People should take care when giving their identity numbers as verification, she said. – Sapa