An individual has shared the story of how a counterfeit identification, created using stolen personal information, allowed a scammer to purchase a $111,000 vehicle under his name.
A fraudster tried to secure loans ranging from $100,000 to $120,000 with four different lenders using the identity of Melbourne resident Robert Cox, as per The Age. On January 15, an unidentified fraudster successfully obtained a $111,651 loan from Branded Financial Services. The loan was used to purchase a 2023 Audi RS Q3 from The Auto Gallery, a car dealership in Sydney.
However, Cox was only made aware of the situation in late January when a representative from Branded Financial Services showed up at his home. A copy of a Victorian driver’s licence was presented to Cox as proof of identity for the loan application. All the information matched Cox’s details, but the photo bore no resemblance to him.
“I’ve thought, ‘Oh f—, this is weird’,” Cox told The Age.
“I then showed him my real licence and said, ‘nah man, this is the real me. I’ve been here forever’.”
After the disclosure, Cox reached out to the authorities and IDcare, a service that specialises in identity and cyber support. They advised him to freeze his credit file to prevent fraudsters from using his name to secure loans.
In 2020, Cox learned that fraudsters had accessed his credit history, which allowed them to apply for a loan and a credit card using his identity without success.
According to The Age, authorities have confirmed that they are currently looking into the situation and have not yet found the vehicle.
Cox remains puzzled about how scammers obtained his personal information, but specialists note that this form of identity theft is on the rise after major data breaches such as the Optus and Medibank incidents.
“We’re minutes away from the next data breach, and what my case shows is this wasn’t actually that sophisticated to carry out,” Cox told The Age.
“Identity theft is only happening because governments are allowing it to happen.”
According to Liesl Knox, CEO of Branded Financial Services, the company discovered the fraud after the car was bought.
“We’ve been in contact with Cox to support him through this stressful situation and ensure any impact on him is minimised,” Knox said in a statement.
“We will always absorb the cost of an incident such as that of Cox’s identity thief and take steps to rectify the impact on the individual’s financial records which might otherwise prevent them from obtaining finance in the future.”
According to reports, the fraudster used a counterfeit driver’s licence, a forged rates notice from Cox’s local council, Cox’s Australian Business Number, and an ING bank account under his name to obtain the loan. An uncovered loophole has brought to light the issue of certain Victorian driver licences not being adequately verified during credit applications.
Reportedly, the counterfeit driver’s licence included a fabricated card number on the rear side. Although the government’s document verification service retains all Australian driver’s licence information, sometimes just the licence number suffices for document verification instead of requiring both numbers.
Before the breach in 2022, the DVS only kept licence numbers on record. However, VicRoads has now started including card numbers for customers impacted by the Optus and Latitude Finance breaches. They will also be adding both numbers for customers once their current licences expire.
According to a spokeswoman for the Victorian Transport Department, VicRoads is currently working on loading unique card numbers for all Victorian licence holders into DVS.