Document fraud is a serious crime

13/10/2006

The Department of Internal Affairs says fraudsters will get caught, and knowingly buying false documents is foolish. In commenting on the conviction yesterday of Rebecca Li on 49 charges of fraud including of birth certificates, the Deputy Registrar-General Ross McPherson, says good systems are in place.

“The systems are in place to prevent identity theft, to detect fraudsters and to catch anyone knowingly using a false document,” he says.

Mr McPherson says organisations should also take care to use the right documents to verify identity.

“A birth certificate alone is not enough to establish the identity of an applicant or customer. A birth certificate may be used in conjunction with other identity documents but does not by itself establish an identity.

“A birth certificate says that a certain person was born on a particular date in a certain place with a particular name. The document itself says in capital letters “THIS CERTIFICATE IS NOT EVIDENCE OF THE IDENTITY OF THE PERSON PRESENTING IT”.

The government has recently issued an Evidence of Identity Standard to guide government agencies about correctly using documentation to verify identity.