Week
In Week Out exposes identity thieves
Identity
theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in Britain, yet there
are just a few hundred policemen dedicated to detecting fraud. Tonight’s
Week In Week Out (Tuesday 26 February, BBC ONE Wales) looks at how
easy it is to steal an identity and asks if more should be done
to protect us from this growing crimewave.
The
programme goes on the trail of an identity thief who caused havoc
for Antony Williams from Llanelli, stealing his name and going on
a spending spree.
The
thief defrauded banks and building societies and left a trail of
unpaid bills. After weeks of investigating, the programme reveals
the face of the thief who stole more than £15,000 and ran
up hundreds of pounds in unpaid debts. It also looks at how vulnerable
people are, with statistics showing that identity theft increased
by almost 500% between 1999 and 2000.
Talking
to Week In Week Out, Antony Williams says that the first he knew
of his identity crisis was when the bailiffs turned up on his doorstep
demanding money for a television and stereo he had never bought.
In the weeks that followed, Antony says that opening the post became
a nightmare as he and his wife received more and more demands for
money. Few of the companies wanted to accept that Antony wasn’t
their man.
"They
all had the same line, it was you must prove that you’re not
this person. It was up to me, even though they’d lost the money,
not me," he said.
After
weeks of investigating the programme tracked down a copy of the
passport photograph one of the thieves was using to open accounts
in Antony’s name. Initially Antony was told that because he
hadn’t lost money his case couldn’t be investigated, but
with the new information found by the programme, South Wales fraud
squad are taking a closer look at what happened to him.
Week
In Week Out launched its investigation in the wake of the September
11 attack on the World Trade Centre, after it became clear the men
involved had used a series of identities to fund and to hide their
terrorist activities.
Head
of South Wales fraud squad Tony Clark told the programme: "Chief
police officers would be loathe to put resources into the likes
of fraud when they’re measured on the likes of burglary, reducing
car crime and reducing public disorder on the streets, and no one
can blame them. When you make priorities you make casualties, and
in this country at the moment fraud is a casualty."
There
are just 600 officers dedicated to the investigation of fraud in
Wales, England and Northern Ireland. Yet fraud in all its forms
is costing around £13 billion a year.
The
programme looks at why identity fraud is on the increase. One woman,
convicted of dishonesty, tells how easy it is to get started in
the identity business.
"One
minute you’re sitting there with a cup of coffee, dropped the
kids off, looking at the junk mail. You fill out an application
form, use somebody else’s name, you just invent a date of birth:
they don’t check, they really don’t check and that’s
the major credit card companies," she says. Julie, not her
real name, has moved away from Wales now and wants to leave crime
behind her.
Part
of the problem is the way we spend our money. It gives the fraudster
plenty of opportunities, as the programme discovered when reporter
Gareth Jones went shopping with cheque and credit card expert Terry
Stevens of South Wales fraud squad. He showed how an identity thief
can get started using the information on shopping receipts to fake
a card or shop over the phone. He told the programme that too often
receipts included card numbers, even signatures, which could be
copied.
The
credit card industry is hoping to have a smart card system - which
uses PIN numbers for extra security - up and running by 2005. But
while this will help stop the easier forms of card fraud, Melanie
Hubbard from the Association of Payment and Clearing Services, which
represents the banking industry, said the changes would not rule
out identity fraud.
"The
industry is preparing to see an increase in it, because when the
chip and PIN benefits really start to show, the criminals will not
be able to commit their usual methods. They’ll be looking for
the next weakest link," she said.
Organisations
like APACS are getting together with the government to discuss ways
of tackling identity fraud, but until a solution can be found more
and more of us may find ourselves falling prey to identity thieves.
Week
In Week Out, Tuesday 26 February, BBC ONE Wales, 10.35pm.
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