In most states, the licence number doesn’t change when a licence is renewed. Some states have only recently introduced a second number unique for the card that *does* change upon renewal, I don’t know if every state has that yet. But there are still companies and services that only ask for licence number and not the card number.
Also the licence contains your photo, address and date of birth, which alone can be enough information for identify theft. **Any** personal information a malicious actor can get their hands on is useful, if not by itself then in aggregate with other pieces of information.
Think of it like a puzzle: your name, address, DOB and photo are 4 pieces, the fact you have accounts with Latitude is another piece, maybe they get your phone number from the Optus hack, your medical details from the Medibank hack, then they use these details to trick another company into giving more information. From there it doesn’t take much to start taking advantage of the info for financial gain.
Latest Answers