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Last Updated: Monday, 5 September 2005, 06:01 GMT 07:01 UK
Cards 'not answer to theft of ID'
ID card
The government is looking at introducing ID cards
New technology such as ID cards will fail to solve the problem of identity theft, according to University of East Anglia (UEA) research.

Criminologist Dr Emily Finch believes studying the way people disclose information is more likely to win the battle against identity theft

Fraudsters, she claims, are "tenacious, merely adapting" to meet the challenge of new technology.

Dr Finch will outline her research at the Festival of Science in Dublin.

Dr Finch, a reader in law at the UEA, hopes to challenge the assumption that technology-based security systems provide the solution.


"Our research has shown that fraudsters are tenacious, merely adapting their strategies to circumvent new security measures rather than desisting from fraudulent behaviour.

"Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent the misuse of personal information after it has been obtained."

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