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It is also worth noting that the UK is now an international outlier. The United States enacted a specific federal identity theft offence in 1998—nearly three decades ago—with aggravated penalties for the most serious cases. Canada and Australia have followed suit. The message we are sending is not a comfortable one, but if you wish to commit identity theft, England and Wales is an accommodating jurisdiction. Current fraud legislation is fundamentally reactive. It requires law enforcement to prove financial loss or a specific intent to defraud after a transaction has taken place, but digital identity theft is the foundational crime. In the digital age, our identity is our most sensitive asset. If an individual obtains your unique digital identifiers or biometrics with the intent to impersonate you, the violation of the digital self is complete at that moment, and we should not have to wait for a citizen’s bank account to be emptied or their credit rating destroyed before the law deems an intervention necessary.