Article: Jackie Cameron from FAIRLADY

| What's the story | Stealing lives | Sophisticated techniques | National crisis| Why it's happening

What's the story

When Sisanda Futa, 25, tells people she is married to a Japanese man she has never met, the first thing they usually do is giggle. Until they realise the implications for Sisanda.

Sisanda is an attractive, fun-loving metallurgy and engineering graduate, who grew up in the Transkei and moved to Cape Town to take up a promising position with an oil company. But she's become stressed and depressed since she discovered her identity was stolen and used to provide a foreign immigrant with a local wife to legalise his residency permit.

Sisanda's daily life has become a living nightmare. Now that she is Sisanda Hong on South Africa's identity records, she can't open or operate any bank, store or telephone account unless she uses her new name. She can't apply for electricity in her own name, or sign a lease for her own home. She can't marry, and she can't vote unless she's prepared to do so as Sisanda Hong. And she can't change her surname back to Futa

What at first seemed like an annoying one-off case of fraud has proved to be an irreversible transaction with enduring consequences.

"At first I was shocked and irritated, but this has become deeply stressful. I have reported it to the police and have tried several times to get the Department of Home Affairs to resolve this, but they refuse to believe I did not marry this person I have never even met," Sisanda says, struggling to hold back tears.

The only solution police and Home Affairs officials have come up with so far is for her to divorce Jianjing Hong -­ a step Sisanda refuses to take. "I don't want to be a divorcee. I'm not one now and I don't intend to be one. I can prove I wasn't in Pretoria at the time they say I got married, but they aren't interested. They say, 'This is where you got married, this is where you signed and this is the priest.' I want to scream out of desperation," she says.

Sisanda is not prepared to use her new identity either, as she fears this would be tantamount to conceding she did in fact go along with a wedding to a stranger and could, as a result, weaken her case to get back her own name.

Stealing lives

Sisanda, of course, is not alone in her plight. There are regular reports of people being married off to strangers by sophisticated crime networks specialising in securing permanent residency for foreigners. Police are in the news almost daily for seizing stolen and counterfeit identities in drug busts and anti-crime operations, while corrupt officials within the Department of Home Affairs are named as the main culprits in many of these schemes.

Called identity theft or cloning, this type of crime takes several forms. The traditional way has been for thieves to intercept an identity document and replace your photograph with theirs. Then, using your good name, they can do just about anything from opening store accounts to signing legal documents on your behalf. Take Durban photographer Rob Brien, 41, whose driver's licence was stolen, with his wallet, from his car. "I stopped my bank cards, but I didn't think my wallet was stolen for my identity details -­ until Telkom called to find out when it could expect to receive R3 000 from me for a phone account I didn't have," he recalls.

Some quick detective work by Brien established that a crooked little company had used his identity, taking advantage of his good credit record to open an account it had no intention of paying. "Thankfully Telkom believed I had been a victim of identity theft and didn't pursue me, but I still got a shock."

Other people aren't as fortunate. Like Rita S*, a 38-year-old Johannesburg management consultant who found herself fighting with her bank for several months after identity thieves raided her bank account.

About a year ago, explains Rita, her bank manager called to ask her why she was withdrawing so much money from her account. "I had just received R40 000 and someone with an identity matching mine and a cash card in my name ­- which I have never had with that particular bank ­- was trying to withdraw it at the bank."

Rita told the bank manager to arrest the woman immediately and call the police, but the bank let her go ­with Rita's money. "It was then up to me to prove I hadn't been at the bank. It wasn't until I got a lawyer involved, and a syndicate that included bank insiders was arrested, that I got my money back," she says.

The bank was only prepared to return her money provided she signed an agreement that she would keep all details of the theft confidential. With her impostor roaming free, Rita was obliged to freeze all her own accounts or run the risk of losing more cash. She spent a year trying to outwit the other woman and "fighting" with credit bureaux and other service providers to convince them there was someone else ringing up bad debts in her name.

When you are burgled, you can clean your house to get rid of the burglar's presence, points out Rita. "With identity theft, the invasion just goes on and on."

Sophisticated techniques

Along with more sophisticated technology, increasingly clever ways to steal your identity have been born. Your confidential details can be lifted from documentation, through credit card scanners and computer programs and devices to create an alias for someone else.

Identity theft recently caused a scare among Internet bankers when it emerged that thieves could extract sensitive information like passwords with the help of bugs hidden in innocuous-looking e-mails. Using "key stroke identification software", they managed to steal cash from several Absa bank accounts.

Devices, which essentially read your confidential details without your knowing it, have also been found on automatic teller machines and computers at Internet banking points. Then, when you've finished your banking transactions, thieves clean out your account.

In restaurants, waiters on the payrolls of crime syndicates swipe customer credit cards through machines that read electronic details. Afterwards, credit cards are manufactured using your invisible information ­ and leave you to pay for their spending.

The latest warning doing the rounds is about new high-tech camera cellphones. "Fraudsters can stand near you in a queue at a shop and take a picture of your credit card. From there they can get your name, number and expiry date ­ and even your signature," says one forensic investigator.

Less known, but increasingly common, is the theft of identity to build an impressive curriculum vitae with the help of your stolen qualifications. Ina van der Merwe, managing director of credentials verification service MIE Resource Services, says eight to 12 percent of all identities checked through her bureau come up false, but 13 out of 100 people are also caught out lying about their education.

Some create fictitious certification; others use your name and identity, knowing about your qualifications, to steal your credentials - and then they apply for jobs. "These are ordinary people from all backgrounds. They are desperate for a job and have a little bit of an integrity problem,' Van der Merwe says.

National crisis

Despite the flurry of law enforcement activity around identity theft and fraud, very little in practice is being done to combat and prevent such crimes. The South African Police Service (SAPS) does not have statistics on the incidence of identity theft, although the US has warned it's the fastest growing crime category in the world. Nor does the SAPS afford identity theft any special attention.

Unlike crimes such as diamond and gold theft or armed robbery, there is no unit dedicated to tackling identity theft, says SAPS spokesperson Superintendent Chris Wilken. Cases are often closed without being solved soon after they are opened, with local detectives giving identity theft as little attention as they would a theft reported for insurance purposes. The perpetrators of identity theft are often easy to track down, yet detectives don't bother arresting them, say many victims who've done their own investigation.

Fairlady is in possession of a hard-hitting document put together by Home Affairs officials for Government ministers. According to the report, the most senior ranking civil servants recently conceded the situation has reached the proportions of a national crisis. It is interfering with Government service delivery. People who shouldn't be receiving grants are -­ at the cost of taxpayers ­- while others are unable to get what's due to them as others steal their benefits. Also worrying is the threat to national security and national crime-fighting efforts officials warn.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) echoes this concern. In a recent report on organised crime in southern Africa, the ISS says that many international organised crime groups "rely heavily" on employees of Home Affairs to obtain fraudulent documents for them. The eradication of immigration corruption, says the report, would go a long way towards "disorganising" and "slowing" the activities of syndicates.

Unlike other types of fraud, in which the criminals are usually not violent, identity theft and fraud are often connected to a murky and dangerous underworld. Russian crime networks that specialise in gun-running and Nigerian syndicates involved in drug trafficking and money laundering (concealing the origins of "dirty" money) are among those who rely heavily on identity theft to be able to carry out their activities.

Oriental gangs involved in smuggling endangered species out of South Africa and humans into the country also need fake documents. Wherever there is a lot of money at stake in illegal activities, there are inevitably large numbers of unsavoury characters willing to do anything ­ including murder ­ to protect their interests.

Of the 40 000 to 100 000 Nigerians currently in South Africa, at most, 4 000 are here legally, the ISS report estimates. The rest rely on criminally acquired documentation to remain here, while "a significant number are involved in criminal activities and organised crime networks".

Why it's happening

According to Home Affairs insiders, widespread corruption is a significant contributor to the problem. Criminals are finding it easy to buy just about any help they require right now from officials. Bribes, often starting as "thank you" payments, quickly entrap officials. At the heart of the problem lies an inadequate system with insufficient resources.

While organised syndicates are ever more sophisticated, the Department of Home Affairs has been left way behind the times. Says the Home Affairs report to Government: "We are, as a department, living in IT prehistory. Almost all our systems and business processes are manual and paper-based. For me to communicate electronically with my secretary next door I have to go through the Internet. We have no network collaboration system."

Most offices and border posts "if they are lucky enough to have computers are not connected in real time to our mainframes. And only a small [number] of our offices are computerised", the report laments. What's more, the population register and other systems "need a complete rewrite".

"The movement control system has to be updated manually once a day at the bigger posts, and weekly at some. Some border posts don't have telephones, faxes or other basic necessities." Adding to their woes is the lack of basic security measures at offices around the country. And a drastic staff shortage, imposed by government's budgetary constraints, means an over-reliance on "volunteers" paid a meagre daily stipend of about R40.

"It may be good that these volunteers are being given the opportunity to earn some income and to gain experience that will stand them in good stead when jobs become available," says the Home Affairs report. "But it cannot be right that, in effect, these people are being exploited to perform work that should be performed by fully-qualified and trained full-time members. The point also needs to be made that these volunteers are not vetted," it says.

* Name has been changed

Image: Angie Lázaro/Fairlady Magazine