Related topics:. About IDX. Get the latest tips and insight delivered straight to your inbox. Related Content. Subscribe to get the latest tips and insight in your inbox. We never send spam and you can unsubscribe whenever you like. Most states charge a small fee to provide the report. Contact the three major credit reporting agencies CRAs to obtain a copy of your credit report to ensure no unknown accounts are opened in your name.
You are entitled under the Fair Credit Reporting Act FCRA to a copy of any background check conducted by a third-party company when you apply for a job.
Just ask the Human Resources representative for the contact information of the background screening company. If you have not had a recent background check, consider contacting a reputable background check company to conduct a self-check to look for errors such as wrong employers, false criminal charges, debt collections, etc. You can contact the ITRC toll-free at We will create a customized identity theft remediation plan with specific action steps you can take that are tailored to your unique situation.
But her driver's licence number, which was used to apply for the loan in the first place, could not be changed because she lives in WA, which issues one licence number per person for life.
All other jurisdictions, aside from the Northern Territory, allow victims of identity crime to change their driver's licence number to protect themselves once their identity is compromised.
But experts say the process is convoluted and more challenging in some states than others, with the onus placed on the victim to repair their credit history and protect themselves after the crime.
Christine Jackson, security counsellor and centre manager for IDcare , a national support service for victims of identity crime, said when a driver's licence became compromised, criminals could open up lines of credit in the victim's name. Ms Jackson said driver's licences were sought after by criminals because they were regularly used to verify identities by government departments, phone companies and banks.
She said transport departments left people exposed by delivering driver's licences through the mail, despite them being the most common identity documents used to commit fraud. It was difficult to protect someone's identity when their licence was stolen because of different rules across the country. What we're actually talking about is you can replace your driver's licence, but when you do, it doesn't [necessarily] change the driver's licence number," she said.
But she said even if the licence number could be changed, as was the case in many states, it only offered partial protection. Queensland University of Technology senior lecturer Cassandra Cross, who has researched victim impacts of online fraud, said driver's licences were part of a greater challenge around identity theft and technology in Australia.
She said victims experienced significant trauma after the fraud took place, having to tell their story over and over again to banks, telcos and government. A spokeswoman for the WA Department of Transport DoT said it was aware of an increasing number of identity fraud cases nationally. She said the department was is in the process of implementing a national agreement between states that would help protect people from identity fraud.
This would include sharing citizen's biometric driver's licence data with national agencies, a move heavily criticised by privacy experts. The spokeswoman said a decision on implementing changeable driver's licence numbers would not be made until a policy and systems review for that agreement had been completed. No timeframe was provided. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, , people were victims of identity theft in the —15 financial year, the latest statistics available.
Despite older people often being targeted by scammers, it was in fact people aged 25—34 who were most likely to fall victim to identity theft, followed by those aged 35—44 and those aged 15— An Australian Institute of Criminology AIC report found one in four Australians reported being a victim of identity crime at some point in their lifetimes, while 13 per cent had been victims in the past 12 months. The report found those numbers had both risen from levels and victims spent an average of 23 hours repairing the damage caused.
Last year the Department of Home Affairs launched a review on the national arrangements for the protection and management of identity information which was due to be completed in November last year.
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