Identity Theft – Identity Fraud

This week I was fortunate to be a presenter at the IRR national Fraud Conference. My session was on Identity Theft of Children and I think I provided a view of what the future holds for children whose identity is stolen, or those who have the skills and knowledge to create identity theft in the future.

Presenters and delegates were from many of the banks, and large companies who have dedicated e-security and fraud investigators. There was also a large presence from the Australian Federal Police and state police groups.

What stood out to me was how wide spread and how common identity fraud is. In many cases police have contacted those who have been scammed, yet many do not believe the police or the bank and still send large amounts of money to places like Nigeria. Nigeria is the number one country where these scams originate from and the concern is that soon, Nigeria will have a high speed free internet connection available to anyone, so expect a significant rise in identity fraud and scams.

Many of the criminals from Nigeria who have been caught often say that Australian’s are the most gullible of any country on the net, thus they target out country as often as possible.

Many of the credit cards involved scams by Asian groups who have skimmed credit cards. Never let your card out of sight when paying at a restaurant. Other areas of risk are providing credit card numbers to companies who run online gambling sites. Card numbers are often skimmed from these sites.

Another growing area is the use of innocent citizens to launder money through e-bay purchases or passing on money to an account for a 10% fee.

There were several case studies provided by police, which were fascinating, however due to confidentiality I am unable to provide the details on my blog. However it is fair to say that the amount of evidence that has to be collected and cross referenced is enormous and in some cases 2 or more police officers have spent two or more years, just putting together the evidence. Sometimes up to 5,000 documents.

One of the emerging areas of identity theft is from letterboxes. Utility statements (gas and power) are often stolen from letter boxes, falsifies and used at evidence for 100 point identification checks. More recently credit cards have been stolen from letter boxes, activated and used illegally. The advice was that everyone with a letter box should have a padlock on it.

When criminals are interviewed about crimes that use technology they say there are three reasons why they do it
• It is the easiest crime to commit
• It is the hardest crime to detect
• It has the lowest sentences if caught

Identity Fraud has created new victims. Those who have had their identity stolen and family members of victims, as sometimes it can take years to clear your name or families name and to get your credit rating back.

ICT in Marlborough, New Zealand

ICT is alive and well in New Zealand. I have just spent two delightful days working with educators in Blenheim as part of the Marlborough Technology in Education Cluster. The cluster is made up of staff from two schools, Marlborough Girls College and Marlborough Boys College.
The two schools had a Teacher Only Day (TOD) to enhance the use of technology. What I found interesting was that many of the workshops on the PD day focused around technologies that children use in every-day life. For many teachers it was a chance to understand and try these technologies. While some of the session involved the use of Learning Objects, Inspiration and other classroom related software there was a strong focus on student technology.

One session focused on cell phones and learning how student text with cell phones, how to use calendars, upload images etc using the cell phone. Another focused on Flickr and how to put photos on line, while the use of iPods’ and how to find and download music was also a feature.
Teachers also had the chance to learn about Skype and how to communicate with family and friends using this low cost or free resource.
There was certainly a buzz around the schools, who jointly hosted sessions. Lunch was at the girls college and the opening keynote and closing drinks at the boy’s college, ensuring that there was no bias for locations.

The evening before over 40 educators turned up to a pre conference workshop that I delivered on the “World of Google” There was significant interest on how the different applications could be used in classrooms.

On the PD day, I delivered a keynote called “Webciting – What all the hype about web 2.0”. This was a chance to inform educators about the shift from web 1.0 to web 2.0 as well as share a range of new technologies being used in education. I followed this with reference to professional learning for educators and how the model is changing and then finished with some international research and of course some "wow" factor with some of the technologies of the future.
My first workshop focused on digital storytelling and it was great to see how excited many of the staff were who had not used this process before. Of particular note was the PE staff who are going to change the face of theory lessons with a whole range of multimedia. My second session was on web 2.0 tools, toonadoo, bubbl.us, freewebs, igoogle and more. Again there was a buzz in the room and at the end of the day, when all other sessions had finished, my group wanted to keep going. How webciting!

I also have to thank my hosts Sandy and Giles, who co-ordinated the conference from their respective schools. They were fantastic and the hospitality and the offers to go out of their way to look after me where greatly appreciated. From bbq dinners and take away, to chauffeuring me to and from the airport and school. Nothing was too much trouble, even though they had the weight of organising the event on their shoulders. Thank you.


So where are they headed. Certainly there was a good level of understanding of technology by teachers. There are the usual number of champions that I see in schools, however there was a far greater general ICT awareness and skill level as a whole staff, than in general.



With Sandy and Giles leading the way, I will expect to see some great educational outcomes coming from this school district.



(Photo: Blenheim District as my plane departed)