The evaluation of forensic intelligence to better understand the criminal environment for Australian document fraud

Devlin, Ciara Jean

The evaluation of forensic intelligence to better understand the criminal environment for Australian document fraud

Devlin, Ciara Jean

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2024

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Devlin, Ciara Jean
dc.date.accessioned	2026-07-30T02:40:02Z
dc.date.available	2026-07-30T02:40:02Z
dc.date.issued	2024
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/195841
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	Identity crime and document fraud are pervasive and prolific problems that impact individuals, communities, and governments. They are also known to enable and facilitate transnational, serious, and organised crime, such as the trafficking of illicit goods, human trafficking, and terrorism. Despite the harms caused by these criminal environments and their fast growth, very little is known about Australian identity crime and document fraud, largely due to the reliance on reactive reporting and policing methods. To address this gap and gain greater insight into the identity crime and document fraud criminal environments, the market for fraudulent documents and personal information has been examined through the analysis of both the physical and digital traces of the market. This has been done in two parts, focusing on the visual profiling and comparison of 183 fraudulent identity documents collected from Australian law enforcement, and then the analysis of the ID-related market on two cryptomarkets (a.k.a. anonymous online marketplaces). From the profiling portion of the work, it was identified that 94% of the documents were linked to at least one other document, and 17 series emerged, the largest containing 54 documents. Therefore suggesting that the physical side of the market for fraudulent documents within Australia is likely organised with prolific offenders contributing a disproportionately large number of products to the market. This level of organisation was also identified within the digital side of the market, with a small number of vendors (13) contributing 63% of the sales to the ID-related market. Through the analysis of the products available, their supply, demand and trafficking patterns, it was possible to identify that Australian documents were the second most listed and sold products. These analyses provide valuable information, illuminating an often-shrouded illicit marketplace and providing extra insight to assist intelligence-led policing. Currently within Australia there are many siloes between the different organisations and research bodies that deal with the ID-related criminal environment. This research illustrates that not only is a combined analysis of both the physical and online portions of the market required to understand the criminal environment for document fraud and identity crime, but that more information sharing and collaboration is required between the organisations that work in this space. Only through the active sharing of identity crime reports, document seizures and research combined with the monitoring of both the physical and digital market will it be possible to better understand and more proactively police ID-related crime.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2024 Ciara Jean Devlin
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/nph
dc.title	The evaluation of forensic intelligence to better understand the criminal environment for Australian document fraud	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

Identity crime and document fraud are pervasive and prolific problems that impact individuals, communities, and governments. They are also known to enable and facilitate transnational, serious, and organised crime, such as the trafficking of illicit goods, human trafficking, and terrorism. Despite the harms caused by these criminal environments and their fast growth, very little is known about Australian identity crime and document fraud, largely due to the reliance on reactive reporting and policing methods. To address this gap and gain greater insight into the identity crime and document fraud criminal environments, the market for fraudulent documents and personal information has been examined through the analysis of both the physical and digital traces of the market. This has been done in two parts, focusing on the visual profiling and comparison of 183 fraudulent identity documents collected from Australian law enforcement, and then the analysis of the ID-related market on two cryptomarkets (a.k.a. anonymous online marketplaces). From the profiling portion of the work, it was identified that 94% of the documents were linked to at least one other document, and 17 series emerged, the largest containing 54 documents. Therefore suggesting that the physical side of the market for fraudulent documents within Australia is likely organised with prolific offenders contributing a disproportionately large number of products to the market. This level of organisation was also identified within the digital side of the market, with a small number of vendors (13) contributing 63% of the sales to the ID-related market. Through the analysis of the products available, their supply, demand and trafficking patterns, it was possible to identify that Australian documents were the second most listed and sold products. These analyses provide valuable information, illuminating an often-shrouded illicit marketplace and providing extra insight to assist intelligence-led policing. Currently within Australia there are many siloes between the different organisations and research bodies that deal with the ID-related criminal environment. This research illustrates that not only is a combined analysis of both the physical and online portions of the market required to understand the criminal environment for document fraud and identity crime, but that more information sharing and collaboration is required between the organisations that work in this space. Only through the active sharing of identity crime reports, document seizures and research combined with the monitoring of both the physical and digital market will it be possible to better understand and more proactively police ID-related crime.

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