In The News

Identity fraud costing $1b a year

ABC News Online
November 12, 2003

The Federal Government is considering new ways of using modern technology to curb identity fraud in Australia.

A report by the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia Pacific has found identity fraud costs Australia $1.1 billion a year.

The centre interviewed 120 government, law enforcement and private sector agencies over 12 months to compile the report.

Half of all identity fraud cases in Australia involve the falsification of personal documents to steal cash and purchase goods and services.

The Minister for Justice, Chris Ellison, says the forging and falsification of identifying documents is common practice within terrorist and people-smuggling operations, and the wider community.

He says Customs authorities in Sydney have introduced photo-matching technology to combat passport fraud.

"We've seen Customs trialling Smartgate, which is facial recognition, state-of-the art technology and that pilot program is going very well," Senator Ellison said.

"We've been using it with airline crews and we hope to expand that further in the near future."

Senator Ellison says identity fraud is a growing problem because of changes to public access to personal details.