People need to be more aware of identity fraud and not just identity theft, warned specialist IT consultancy Detica.
The theft of an ID is simply a means to commit fraud, warned the company, and said public awareness needed to be raised to combat this.
"Identity theft is an enabler, a means of ultimately perpetrating a range of criminal activities from fraud and money laundering, to drug trafficking and illegal immigration," said Detica head of security and risk, David Porter.
ID fraud is estimated to cost governments, businesses and individuals globally around US$221bn by the end of 2003, said Detica. This figure is expected to rise to $2 trillion by the end of 2005. According to the National Criminal Intelligence Squad, identity fraud will cost the British economy an estimated £1.3bn a year.
"If people were more aware of this, then we might stand a better chance of tackling identity theft and therefore stopping the fraud from ever happening," concluded Porter.
