Article Search

 Is your identity safe?
    November 14 2008 at 12:08PM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za

By Lyse Comins and Arthi Sanpath

Fraud syndicates are using identity theft to exploit the huge number of life and funeral policies being taken out because of the HIV and Aids pandemic.

They steal an identity, take out a policy and then declare the person dead and claim the money.

Pat Cunningham, South African fraud prevention services head, which represents major creditors like retailers and banks, said fraudulent applications and claims had cost members an estimated R1,1-billion this year and in many cases identity theft had been used.

Syndicates frequently used informants at state mortuaries and funeral parlours to alert them to unidentified and unclaimed bodies.
Continues Below ↓





"They will also disfigure and sell an unidentified body between syndicates (to commit multiple fraud). It's quite morbid," said Ernst Pienaar, convener of the Forensic Standing Committee of the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa). He is also head of forensic investigations at Sanlam Life and African Life.

Fraudsters would then use stolen identities to make fraudulent death claims to the Department of Home Affairs in order to cash in R10 000 to R16 000 against policies.

Fraudulent claims have more than tripled to R74,8-million in 2007, compared to R21,1-million in 2006.

"Geographically the highest number of fraudulent cases were submitted in KwaZulu-Natal (40 percent), followed by Gauteng (25 percent) and then the Eastern Cape (14 percent).

Identity theft, which works hand in hand with insurance fraud, is rife and increasing - a reality for Pretty Mathapetta Pholo, a nurse at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Phoenix.

She was declared dead.

The Department of Home Affairs issued her with a death certificate stating she had died in Bloemfontein in June from pneumonia. She has also had to apply for a new identity document.

"But I am alive, I sign in at work everyday, people can see that I am alive," she said.

Pholo's woes started three months ago when the hospital received a fax from the Department of Health asking it to clarify whether she was dead or alive.

Home Affairs officials in Umgeni Road told her to go to Bloemfontein, a town she has never set foot in, to resolve the matter.

However, three months later Pholo was still waiting for her new document, and her employer had frozen her salary, despite Home Affairs taking her name off the death register.

Department of Health spokesperson, Chris Maxon, said salaries were frozen in such cases every two months to "check for ghost employees". Her salary had been paid this week.

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson, Siobhan McCarthy, said on Monday errors occasionally did occur where two people had the same date of birth and name. She said she would have to investigate before commenting further.

Pholo is concerned that her identity number may have been stolen to commit fraud, a legitimate worry, according to Cunningham.

"This year we have filed 9 600 people into our systems who tried to obtain goods and services using fraudulent identity documents. They had tried to buy anything from cars and houses to clothing. Name it and they will try it," Cunningham said.

"ID theft is getting out of hand. I am sitting here with an identity document with the same photograph and four different identity numbers. False identity numbers have been issued by Home Affairs and it all looks perfectly acceptable," Cunningham said.

lyse.comins@inl.co.za



    • This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on November 14, 2008
Showing page 1 of 1 comment pages, 4 total comments
53 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
i am one of the victims of ID theft ,south africa is a very dangerous place especially GP ,the way i was so troumatized when they withdrawed my salary from the bank using my ID .i went mad i did know where to start ,what to do ..please the gorvrment need to do something about this issue it getting out of hand
53 Weeks ago Mkhonto wrote :
South Africa has become a corrupt country. Teenagers in SA have inherited corruption sickness as part of their lives. Such sickness has been planted to the young minds by our newspapers/media after the famous JZ and big dudes saga. I hope we will be hearing less about corruption in the next year and more!
53 Weeks ago Benjamin wrote :
And on the other hand you have banks, insurance companies, telecommunication companies and I'm quite sure even SARS selling your personal details for a quick buck. A big help for all the fraudsters out there.
53 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
Please tell me how a death certificate is issued. Surely a doctor has to certify the death. I suppose you can buy these easily i n this corrupt country. I am worried. Where is this all going to stop? What are we teaching the next generation?

Email StoryPrint Story
BOOKMARK THIS STORY
Social bookmarking allows users to save and categorise a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. This is different to using your own browser bookmarks which are available using the menus within your web browser.

Use the links below to share this article on the social bookmarking site of your choice.

Read more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia - Social Bookmarking

muti