Fighting identity crime

Identity crime is on the increase in most jurisdictions and is a matter of concern to governments and financial institutions as well as victims. In a 2003 study the cost of identity fraud to Australia in 2001 - 2 was estimated to be $1.1 billion. Only 38% was identified as direct losses. The majority of costs related to resources to combat identity crime. In the United Kingdom the Home Office estimated that for 2007 the cost was 1.2 billion pounds or 25 pounds for every adult in Britain. The subject raises interesting conceptual questions as well as the practical problems of legislating, investigating and prosecuting these types of offences. The techniques of identity crime are well known yet surprisingly little work has been done on profiling this type of fraudster although there is general agreement that identity crime is now being perpetrated by organized crime which is operating on an international basis.