New SA passport won't solve fraudulent use of travel documents

Fred Steffers: protect your ID as you would a cheques book or credit card.

Fred Steffers, managing director of the Consumer Profile Bureau, one of South Africa's most comprehensive sources of credit information, said the present South African passport had some of the best security measures of any passport world-wide. The problem was that they were being sold under the counter by home affairs officials or were issued to fraudsters who applied with false or forged ID books.

Patrick Cunningham, CEO of SA Fraud Prevention Services said false ID books were still flooding the market both in forged version as well as legitimate documents sold under the counter by corrupt home affairs officials.

“Changing the security measures on South African passports is not going to make any difference whatsoever to the number of bogus passports that are haemorrhaging out of the home affairs department because false IDs are being used to procure legitimate passports.”

Identity theft is on the increase as well and it is costing the South African economy in excess of R1-billion a year.

Steffers said in addition to facilitating the travel of criminals - which is why the United Kingdom introduced visa restrictions on South Africans - false passports and IDs were also widely used to commit fraud on a massive scale.

“Armed with the identity number of someone with a good credit history, it is a simple matter to open numerous accounts in that person's name and to then go on a spending spree,” he said.

“The victim of ID fraud only becomes aware that his ID is being falsely used when letters of demand and summonses from retailers start arriving on his doorstep,” Steffers said.

Growing numbers of South Africans are being adversely listed because their IDs are being used by fraud syndicates. The better the credit rating of individuals the greater the chances that they will be the targets of syndicates who use their identities to defraud business, both in South Africa and internationally. He said South Africans generally do not protect their identity documents well enough and provide their ID numbers far too readily.

“There is a widespread lack of understanding of just how valuable this information is. An ID document should be protected just as carefully as a cheque book or a credit card.”