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Novel solutions sought as identity theft skyrockets |
| Up to 6 million cases of fraud a month committed via stolen salary slips and false documents IDENTITY theft has increased phenomenally in South Africa, reaching such a level that a major retailer is thinking about installing photo-recognition or fingerprint scanners in its stores. Johan Kok, chief operating officer of JD Group, said identity theft had become much more sophisticated in the past five years. Their group is part of the South African fraud-prevention service, and they see between 5 and 6 million cases of fraud a month. JD Group has Bradlows, Hi-Fi Corporation, Incredible Connection, Joshua Doore, Morkels and Russells among its stable. "It's rife," Kok said. "Five years ago we saw the odd opportunistic fraud. It was clumsy. But, now it's far more professional, and syndicates are operating." He said it was impossible to quantify the fraud. "I get what I call a reality check every day. It's an incident report from our stores," Kok said. On Thursday last week his list had at least six cases of fraud in Gauteng, amounting to hundreds of thousands of rands. Normally the fraud takes places in metropolitan areas, but recently he has noticed more activity in towns because staff in urban areas have become wiser to the theft. "You can buy an ID for R300. It's so easy. It's reaching the stage where you might as well use a postage stamp for identification. It has the same meaning as an ID book." Unfortunately, customers had realised this was happening, so some of them were now saying their identity document had been stolen in order to get out of paying for purchases. Kok added that the group was exploring the options of getting photo or fingerprint recognition scanners to try to curb the crimes. He said furniture retailers were being particularly badly hit because the products could easily be sold. One of the ways that identity is stolen is through payment slips, pieces of paper that people often leave lying around their desks. Last year, a group of teachers from a primary school in Lenasia did not receive their October salary advice slips. They never thought anything of it, until they realised they had been used to fake their identities. Four of the teachers were all debited for purchases made at Bradlows in Market Street, central Joburg. The teachers' payslips had been used, along with fake identity documents, and their bank details were given to the store to make the purchases. "We all got such a shock," said one of the teachers. "I got a message on my cellphone saying I had just paid Bradlows R1 321. I thought 'I've never bought anything from this shop'." About R200 000 was spent at the store under the four teachers' names. The crooks bought high-end lounge suites, a TV, a washing machine, an oven and a home theatre system in their names. Delivery addresses were given, one of them in Meadowlands, Soweto. But Kok said the fraudsters don't stay in these addresses. They often rent the premises or have someone waiting, and they load the furniture into a bakkie and drive away. One of the teachers found she "owed" the shop more than R60 000 - half of it for the purchase of a lounge suite. "They put it on hire purchase and took out all this insurance. How caring of them. They gave me until 2012 to pay it off," said the teacher, incredulous at the audacity of the crime. Kok said this often happens. "When you aren't paying, you don't care," he said. "They just tell the shop assistant to throw it all in." The teachers wanted to know how their details were given out. A principal from another school said there was a rumour that this had happened to a few schools. She said they were told by the district office that they would stop the courier services which deliver the slips to schools because of this. The Gauteng Department of Education said six teachers had reported that their personal information was used to commit fraud. The two schools were Sharicrest Primary and Tiisetso-Bekezela in Orange Farm. Department spokesman Charles Phahlane said records showed that all but one teacher had signed acknowledgement of receipt of their salary advices. "Our records also reveal that the personal files of these educators have never been requested or tampered with," he said. Phahlane added that the department was concerned about the fraud and they were willing to co-operate with the police to help discover how this could have happened. All the teachers opened cases at the Johannesburg Central police station. Inspector Lorraine van Emmerik said the police would investigate. By Angelique Serrao The Star 08/02/10e1 Click here to respond to this article - Your responses will get vetted and printed on "Have your Say" |
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