Cape Town - Identity crime in order to commit fraud in SA overwhelms an already stretched police force, says an expert.
"I think we are all aware that SAPS are overwhelmed with the rising crime rates in SA. The investigation of identity thieves is almost a futile exercise, as these criminals are almost always anonymous," Independent Identity Verification expert Dawid Jacobs told Fin24.
While many ID theft cases unreported, Jacobs said that the problem in SA was big.
"ID theft costs the short term insurance industry approximately R4bn per annum," said Jacobs.
According to an underwriter Candice Sutherland at SHA Specialist Underwriters around 974 million company records were lost or stolen in 2014 - resulting in an estimated loss of at least R5.8bn - perpetrated mainly by disgruntled employees.
Online scams
Jacobs has observed a significant spike in the recycling of identities in SA. He said that identity theft affects both the living and the dead as criminals recycle identities to commit online fraud.
Once a criminal has secured a fraudulent identity, they could access loans or other financial instruments for which the identity's original owner could be liable.
ID theft is the fastest growing crime in the world today. It is estimated to generate half a trillion US dollars for cyber crooks. Javelin Research claims that every 79 seconds somebody has their identity stolen.
"ID theft leads to more serious crimes, including money laundering, human trafficking and terrorism," Jacobs said.
Fake IDs can also be used to conduct online scams and fool people into thinking that they are dealing with legitimate businesses.
Spam remains an effective way to deliver malware to steal personal or financial information. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)
According to the SARB, cybercriminals are accelerating their efforts to scam South Africans - in many cases using the Bank's logo to fool people.
The South African Reserve Bank ('the SARB') has, over the past few years, become inundated with requests or calls for assistance from persons who have fallen victim to the criminal elements operating the Advanced Fee fraud scam, commonly known as the '419' or Nigerian letter scam," The SARB says.
News24 reported last week that five people were arrested after being implicated in a R1m life cover claim lodged with 1Life Insurance.
They claimed to relatives of a deceased man and included the owner of a funeral parlour who had allegedly been in on the scam.
Corruption
Scammers are also easily able to get identification details through the placement of employment ads on classifieds sites. With general requirements, people will usually send in ID numbers, addresses, and personal information that a fraudster can use to duplicate an identity.
There are also persistent reports of department of home affairs officials who help scammers acquire illegal IDs.
"The evidence is there to show there is collusion between government officials and the fraudsters. This is why it is vital that the individual takes back control of their ID and make a stolen identity worthless," said Jacobs.
As part of a campaign to protect identities, Jacobs said he is offering free verification of a family member's identification as a way of preventing it from being recycled for criminal enterprise.
Watch this News24 Live on how fraudsters operate within some banks:
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