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The Impersonator

The Impersonator pretends they are another person or entity to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

This might involve using false or stolen identities, attributes or credentials for personal gain.

Examples:

  • A criminal poses as a vendor to hijack payments intended for the vendor.
  • A scammer uses stolen identities to receive fraudulent payments.

Case studies

A 65-year-old Perth man allegedly failed to declare income from a $7 million royalty payment that was paid to a company under his control.

Countermeasures

Counter the Impersonator using measures that support identity security and authentication:

Collaborate with strategic partners such as other government entities, committees, working groups and taskforces. This allows you to share capability, information and intelligence and to prevent and disrupt fraud.

Make sure to confirm the identity (an attribute or set of attributes that uniquely describe a subject within a given context) of the person making the request or claim using evidence.

Automatically match data with another internal or external source to obtain or verify relevant details or supporting evidence. This countermeasure is supported by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's Guidelines on data matching in Australian government administration.

Allow clients, staff and third parties to lodge complaints about actions or decisions they disagree with. This may help identify fraud or corruption, such as failure to receive an expected payment.

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