Perhaps the fastest growing crime in the world right now is that of identity theft.
More specifically, the UK identified Impersonation of the Dead (also known as IOD) as the fastest growing area within identity theft.
It has been estimated that there have been in excess of 100,000 cases of Impersonation of the Dead fraud in the UK thus far, at an annual cost of around £1.5 billion.
UK INFORMATION TO BE SHARED
In a joint effort between the Registrars General for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, records of those who have died recently are going to be freely shared with the main credit reporting agencies and the law enforcement services.
Any organisation, such as Experian who are already approved, can apply to receive the information on recent deaths.
However, agencies will have to undergo a strict application process in addition to agreeing to operate within a strict licensing agreement.
It is estimated that an average of around 12,000 deaths will be reported weekly in the UK.
Death records were, of course, publicly available before now, though credit agencies and law enforcement had no means of easily accessing the information in order to prevent identity theft.
THE DEATH INDEX
In the US, the Death Index is a complete list of people who have died.
The Death Index includes information such as their birth dates, date of death and Social Security numbers.
It was originally designed so that banks and lenders could ensure that people did not exploit the deceased’s personal information.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Death Index is updated each month and made public by the Department of Commerce.
Tracy June Kirkland (see below) notoriously took advantage of the Death Index by exploiting a loophole which allowed her to take over accounts that were already open.
According to Mike Ward, a spokesman for Rootsweb,
“The reason the Social Security Administration has it out there is to prevent fraud, and when it’s used to perpetrate fraud it’s because not all the checks and balances were in place on the financial institution’s end.”
TRACY JUNE KIRKLAND
One of the more infamous cases of identity theft of the dead in the US involves Tracy June Kirkland who was charged by federal prosecutors with aggravated identity theft, amongst other crimes.
Kirkland’s research was more intensive than simply reading obituaries – she utilised genealogy web site Rootsweb.com in order to garner the information she required to conduct identity theft.
With such readily available names, social security numbers and birth dates Kirkland was able to randomly call credit card companies to find out if the deceased person had an account with them.
If she was able to confirm that an account did indeed exist then she would change the registered address to one of her many rental mailboxes.
Her 3 year crime spree is believed to have included the personal information of over 100 dead people.
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