Identity crime
The use of false identities by organised criminals is common in all types of organised crime. Criminals deliberately misrepresent their identity in order to carry out criminal activity where evidence of an identity is essential. This could be fraud, financial crimes, people smuggling or illegal working.
Organised criminals also use false travel documents to conceal their movements into and out of the UK, making law enforcement detection harder, and use other false identities to protect their criminal assets from confiscation.
Creating a false identity
Criminals use three main methods:
- modification of some aspect of their own identity;
- creation of a wholly fictitious identity; and
- theft of someone else’s identity, either living or dead.
Many organised crime groups are known to produce, supply or use false personal identities. In order to avoid detection, some organised criminals will use false identities on a very large scale, sometimes running into thousands of individual identities.
Other fake documents
Criminals also use other forms of misrepresentation. For example documents which give false information on company or vehicle identity, consignments, business accounts and transactions.
Since public and private sector organisations routinely demand proof of identity, criminals need passports, driving licences and other documentation to support their false identities.
How false documents are produced
Documents commonly used to support identity, such as utility bills and bank statements, are easy to produce on home computers. Other documents, notably UK passports, are less easily falsified and are therefore difficult for organised criminals to produce. This is particularly true of the new generation of biometric passports which incorporate chip technology in their security features.
Criminals tend to obtain more complex false documents from specialist producers, or fraudulently obtain genuine documents, either by misrepresentation or theft. New security features, together with the introduction of official document verification services, may see an increase in demand for identity theft via fraudulently obtained genuine documents.
To make counterfeit or forged travel and identity documents criminals also need manufacturing equipment and materials. Most of the “forgery factories” detected in the UK are located in small premises, such as private homes. However, these are capable of turning out large quantities of false documents to support fraud, financial and other crime.
Travel documents
False travel documents that are to be used at UK border controls need to be high quality forgeries or stolen genuine documents if they’re to pass the specialist scrutiny applied there. Such documents command higher prices.
Lower quality ones, which are cheaper and more easily sourced, may not be good enough to pass through border controls.
Protecting your identity
The increased availability and ease of access to personal information and business records online makes information and identity theft easier for criminals. Theft can be from both the public and private sectors.
Wherever you work, and wherever you are, it’s important to protect your identity details to prevent becoming a victim of identity theft.
Find out more about identity crime now
For further information, have a look at the identity crime section of the UK Threat Assessment (765.62 kb PDF)
You might also be interested in our Protecting yourself pages
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