Time to prevent misuse of lost or stolen ID cards

Have you ever lost your ID card? If yes, don't be surprised if you get a call from police saying somebody has laundered money using it. Reports say an ID card cannot be deactivated so those who find or steal one can use it for various purposes, including opening false accounts to execute financial frauds, leaving the genuine holder in anxiety.

In some extreme cases, people who lost their ID cards were even arrested for the crimes committed by those who found or stole them. This has prompted many to call for the establishment of a system that would enable one to report a lost ID card to the authorities and get it deactivated. But this is technically not possible at the moment.

Unlike credit cards which only grant users access to their bank accounts, an ID card hosts information in its circuit, so credit cards have to be read through online machines linked to a bank server while ID cards are read through offline machines. This means a bank can easily deactivate lost credit cards via the server but police cannot do the same for lost ID cards.