How Unique are You?

[Houses4Rent]

Hey Houses4Rent

Identity change is a very, very common occurrence at Home Affairs.

People are approaching the department, informing them that they want to correct their date of birth. They often present affidavits from a family member, which confirms that the parents gave the wrong date of birth. Home Affairs will then fix the date of birth. As the date of birth (first 6 digits of an ID Number) changes, they issue a total new identity number.

Home Affairs do not report these changes to credit bureaus, nor are they allowed to publish it in the Gazette. You actually need to know what to look for in credit reports in identifying people who changed their ID's.

This is very commonly being done by fraudsters and people blacklisted on credit bureaus.

How big is this? I have no idea, but I am in possession of my own database I built up where I identified ID Changes, and I have around 10,000 people with their old and new ID Numbers. I heard from a source of mine that the real number of people who changed their IDs could be in the 100's of thousands....

This is worrying if its true. I was under the impression that the hospitals and HA keeps logs of births. So if someone born in RSA claims he was not born on that day surely the logs can be consulted? Maybe I try it myself one day when I feel too old and just make myself a few years younger. There wil be no log as I am not born in RSA, ha ha.

[lewskannen]

This is worrying if its true. I was under the impression that the hospitals and HA keeps logs of births. So if someone born in RSA claims he was not born on that day surely the logs can be consulted? Maybe I try it myself one day when I feel too old and just make myself a few years younger. There wil be no log as I am not born in RSA, ha ha.

Hey Houses4Rent

This is true. The problem actually started in the early 1990's. There were many, many people who never reported births to Home Affairs. In order to correct the population register, Home Affairs actually invited people to come in and correct their date of births, where it was wrong and report it if never was reported.

On one occasion, all identity numbers actually changed at Home Affairs. Old ID Numbers changed from the last 3 digits (from 001, 002, 003, 008, etc.) to the new 081, 082, 083, etc. People then needed to get the new bar-coded ID Book which reflected the new identity number. In this case, the first 10 digits of the ID stayed the same, only the last 3 changed. This was legal and fine. It is still possible for credit bureaus to link the old and new ID numbers based on the first 10 digits.

However, with identity change, a person simply goes to home affairs with an affidavit from a father, mother or family member stating that they gave him a wrong date of birth. Home Affairs will then change the date of birth. (This means the first six digits change). In these cases the person will get a total new identity number. Like I said, this is true and big. It is still happening today. I even know of attorneys and even debt counselors recommending this to clients.

Here is one article I could find about this (unfortunately, only in Afrikaans in the Beeld) - http://152.111.1.88/argief/berigte/b...aiss_1353.html

Also, if I conduct a Google search, you will find articles on Zuma's daughter who also did this. Also, there is a Noseweek article revealing that the Department have changed the date of births of more than 28,700 people in the 2003 financial year only. This is 28,700+ people (in 1 year only) who now have new id numbers and credit bureaus are not aware of them!



What I do not understand about this, is that if you change your names and surname, if you die, it all gets reported in the Government Gazette, but identity change does not need to be reported. This is something most criminals are currently doing, also those with huge debts and can't afford to pay it back. Scary thing is, I found one person who changed his identity 3 times!

L

[HR Solutions]

ID no changes does not discount the fact that the website is inaccurate with name searches. If u google your own name u will find plenty, but not on that site !

[lewskannen]

ID no changes does not discount the fact that the website is inaccurate with name searches. If u google your own name u will find plenty, but not on that site !

Yes, I do not speak about the site, however. I am speaking about identity change, as it was mentioned by Houses4Rent. This is something I personally know about, something that has troubled the banking sector for some time, something costing them billions of rands per month in fraudulent losses.

As far as I know the site does mention that their statistics are not accurate and based on their own records. It should be used for entertainment purposes only. So, that really does not bother me - it would have bothered me if it was Home Affairs giving such information

[Justloadit]

This is worrying if its true. I was under the impression that the hospitals and HA keeps logs of births. So if someone born in RSA claims he was not born on that day surely the logs can be consulted? Maybe I try it myself one day when I feel too old and just make myself a few years younger. There wil be no log as I am not born in RSA, ha ha.

You under the impression that every pregnant woman goes to a hospital to give birth.
Not true, there are many births at home, and especially the rural areas, so effectively the only record of the birth, is the mother and any one closely related to her.

[Houses4Rent]

I see some gaps i.e. rural births, but I am horrified of the ease of an ID change. Anyway, we check our ID numbers with the data from HA and so far we have not had one which came up wrong in 7 years and hundreds of checks. However, sometimes the surname mismatches in case of marriage/divorce, but those could always be resolved.

[lewskannen]

I see some gaps i.e. rural births, but I am horrified of the ease of an ID change. Anyway, we check our ID numbers with the data from HA and so far we have not had one which came up wrong in 7 years and hundreds of checks. However, sometimes the surname mismatches in case of marriage/divorce, but those could always be resolved.

Yes, changing an ID Number is very, very easy. You simply go to Home Affairs and complete a form requesting to correct your date of birth. They take your fingerprints and attach only one affidavit from a parent or direct family member. Within about 1-4 weeks you have a new identity number.

Secondly, banks, credit bureaus or any other company making use of HA also does not get notified of an identity change. For some reason unknown HA is not allowed to inform any institution. However, if you have a contact within HA they can give you that information. We had a fraud department that checked ID Numbers specifically for identity change, but this was done through a contact within HA.

[HR Solutions]

I've never heard of id changes - and I work a lot with crim checks, ccma checks etc

[lewskannen]

I've never heard of id changes - and I work a lot with crim checks, ccma checks etc

If you do have access to someone within the SAPS CRC or at Home Affairs, remember to ask them about it and include that check in your checks. Also, do check the links I have provided earlier and you will see how big ID changes are.

Like I said, unfortunately, HA is not allowed to give out this information for some reason, but many companies do have access to check on this.

If anyone ever tells you this does not exist, I have my own list of about 10,000 people who we identified changed their IDs. I have both old and new IDs. All of them, without exception, have the same in common: Both IDs are verifying when checked against credit bureaus, all have the same names and surname but different ID numbers, all the old ID numbers have defaults and judgments and the new ID numbers are clean.

Also, like Noseweek revealed, they have a list of 28 700+ people who changed their IDs in one financial year. So, this is very common.