The internet’s creating a smokescreen for fraudsters applying for credit, according to the country’s largest credit bureau.
Statistics released by Veda show nearly 5% of New Zealanders have used fake names when applying for credit and have poor credit histories.
The data analytics company found 216,000 New Zealanders fell into this category during 2014.
Veda managing director, John Roberts, says technology has made it easier for people to be fraudulent, as you often don’t need to present proof of identity when applying for credit online.
You can submit an application from the privacy of your home, rather than presenting your passport at a bank teller, for example.
Roberts says the extent people are going to, to create aliases, is alarming.
They come up with fake names, addresses and occupations.
A person’s even been caught with 27 aliases.
Roberts notes the statistics exclude people who have files under more than one name, because they got married or entered into new business partnerships, for example.
He says the situation poses a real credit and fraud risk to banks, finances companies, lenders and other credit providers, such as telcos and energy companies.
In reality, those ripping off credit providers are probably also trying to get cash through other means, like fake insurance claims.
Roberts says it’s the same group of people causing the trouble.
While the problems tend to stem from lower socio-economic areas, it’s not only those strapped for cash that are offending.
He believes there’s a myth New Zealand doesn’t have a fraud problem.
“Each year we see an increase in the number of people using multiple aliases on top of having poor credit records", says Roberts.
There was a 38% increase in the number of people using fake names on top of having poor credit histories from May-November 2013 to that period in 2014.
“Fraud is a growing problem in New Zealand, and can take hold in organisations that are not equipped to tackle it or don’t understand its impact."
New Zealand isn’t the only country that faces this problem.
Veda confirms that in Australia, there was a 27% increase in total credit application fraud in the 12 months from 2012 to 2013.
It says identity takeover is the fastest growing form of credit application fraud across the Tasman, increasing by 103% from 2012 to 2013.
9 Comments
The report statistic was aliases recorded on thier credit file, not fake names. It likely includes maiden names, foreigners using anglicised names, dropping a middle name, etc.
If Veda is able to match the alias to the persons real credit file, it shouldn't be causing a fraud problem.
The big danger is that it could be a fraudster using stolen info to apply for credit under many names, which gets linked to the real peoples' files without the real person knowing an alias has been linked to them.
Hi there, thank you for your comments. We have tripled-checked the figures with Veda, which confirms they are correct. John Roberts also confirms the 216,000 doesn't include discrepancies caused by people losing their maiden names, dropping their middle names, etc. The figures are undoubtedly quite staggering.
That 1 in every 10 working New Zealanders has faked names with credit records is not believeable. If Veda had that much weight of evidence of corruption they would have to reveal it to police/government otherwise be complict in the identity theft. A few thousand might be a needle in the haystack, but 216000 .... let see... if my ISP was involved in 216,000 copyright infringements (a far less important crime) would that be deemed faultless...
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