Cifas and RUSI highlight growing threat from identity fraud in UK

Findings from a cross-industry Working Group hosted jointly by Cifas, the UK’s leading fraud prevention service, and Think Tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) – and published in a report entitled ‘Who Do You Think You Are?: Recommendations on the Future Response to Large-Scale Identity Fraud’ – highlight the industry’s growing concern that these figures are set to soar as more criminals abuse Artificial Intelligence technologies to steal identities and create flawless fake identity documents that evade controls in the financial industry.

Industry contributors are urging the Government to take the problem seriously and prioritise the issue in its forthcoming Fraud Strategy.  

The joint report highlights the serious consequences of identity fraud and the lack of Government support available to victims. As well as impacting access to future credit and months of burden to restore accounts and ‘repair’ their online identity, many victims suffer psychologically from identity fraud and disengage from the digital economy.

In response, the report calls for a Government-funded identity repair service like those operating in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Verification of documents   

As businesses fight attacks on their services from organised crime groups, the report asks Government to enable industry access to the information they need to protect themselves.

Allowing verification of Government-issued identity documents and the sharing of intelligence by the public sector on false identity documents used in the defrauding of public bodies will be key to combating the threat from fraudsters.

The Cifas-RUSI report makes a number of recommendations including:  

*a review of the law on identity theft to ensure that it provides an adequate deterrent to fraudsters

*greater law enforcement action against the criminal marketplaces where the tools to commit mass-scale identity fraud are sold  

*assurances that the Government’s new digital identity scheme holds identity providers accountable for counter-fraud controls and victim support.

Pervasive threat

Kathryn Westmore, senior research Fellow at RUSI, said: “Identity fraud is a pervasive threat, facilitating not just fraud for financial gain, but also many other types of serious criminal activity. Driven by new technologies and enhanced digitalisation, the sheer scale of the issue is ever-increasing and demands that the UK prioritises its response.”

Helena Wood (director of public policy at Cifas and co-author of the report) added: “Identity fraud victims suffer considerable administrative, financial and also psychological harms following the fraudulent use of their identity. However, there’s no support when repairing the damage that has been done. It’s imperative that the Government’s Fraud Strategy treats this threat with the seriousness it deserves.”

*Read ‘Who Do You Think You Are?: Recommendations on the Future Response to Large-Scale Identity Fraud’