$300 fake ID turns into $111,000 debt nightmare

A man has detailed how a fake ID, made from stolen identity information, enabled a fraudster to spend big in his name.

A man has detailed how a fake ID, made from stolen identity information, enabled a fraudster to buy a $111,000 car in his name.

In January, a fraudster attempted to take out loans with at least four different lenders for between $100,000 and $120,000 in the name of Melbourne man Robert Cox, The Age has reported.

On January 15 the fraudster, who is yet to be identified, succeeded when car financing company Branded Financial Services issued them a loan for $111,651, which was used to buy a 2023 Audi RS Q3 from Sydney-based car dealership The Auto Gallery later that day.

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The type of car the fraudster bought after taking out a loan in Mr Cox’s name.

But the first Mr Cox knew of the situation was in late January when a representative of Branded Financial Services turned at his home.

Mr Cox was shown a copy of a Victorian driver's licence that had been provided as proof of identity for the loan application.

The name, address, date of birth and licence number were all Mr Cox’s but the photo looked nothing like him.

“I’ve thought, ‘Oh f---, this is weird’,” Mr 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’.”

Following the revelation, Mr Cox contacted the police and IDcare, an identity and cyber support service, which recommended he freeze his credit file, as anyone looking to loan money to a fraudster using his name would need to check his credit rating before doing so.

Mr Cox also accessed his credit history from a credit-rating agency and discovered that fraudsters had begun using his identity back in 2020, with both an unsuccessful loan application and credit card application made that year.

Police confirmed to The Age that they are investigating the case and the car is yet to be located.

Branded Financial Services CEO Liesl Knox said the business has absorbed the cost of the incident.

Mr Cox still doesn’t know how fraudsters got hold of his personal details, but experts say this type of identity takeover has become increasingly common following large-scale data breaches like the Optus and Medibank hacks.

“We’re minutes away from the next data breach, and what my case shows is this wasn’t actually that sophisticated to carry out,” Mr Cox told The Age.

“Identity theft is only happening because governments are allowing it to happen.”

Branded Financial Services CEO Liesl Knox told The Age that the company detected the fraud after the car had been purchased.

“We’ve been in contact with Mr Cox to support him through this stressful situation and ensure any impact on him is minimised,” Ms Knox said in a statement.

“We will always absorb the cost of an incident such as that of Mr 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.”

The fraudster reportedly used the fake drivers licence, a forged rates notice from Mr Cox’s local council, Mr Cox’s Australian Business Number and an ING bank account in his name to secure the loan.

The case has revealed a loophole where VicRoads hasn’t uploaded drivers licence card numbers to the federal document verification service.

The case has revealed a loophole that means some Victorian drivers licences aren’t being properly validated during credit applications.

In this instance, the forged drivers licence featured a fake card number on the back, and while the federal government’s document verification service (DVS) stores all Australian drivers licence details, in some cases the licence number alone is enough to verify the document, rather than the dual verification of both numbers.

Prior to 2022’s Optus breach, the DVS only stored licence numbers but since then, VicRoads has uploaded card numbers for customers affected by the Optus and Latitude Finance hacks and is continuing to upload both numbers for consumers once their current licences expire.

A spokeswoman for the Victorian Transport Department told The Age that VicRoads was “in the process of ensuring all Victorian licence holders have their unique card numbers loaded into DVS”.

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