Today, the issue of identity theft has attracted the attention of the media and public opinion and is recognized as one of the fastest growing crimes in the world, which can be a central element in transnational crimes. This criminal phenomenon, which is mainly carried out for the purpose of fraud, is a type of fraud in which a person uses the identity information of another person to introduce himself instead of that person and in this way can achieve financial benefits. The present study, using a descriptive-analytical method and using library resources, while explaining the theoretical foundations of the research, examines the jurisprudential and legal foundations of its criminalization and studies the approach of the penal systems of Iran, the United States and Australia in the field of criminalizing this behavior.

The study of the principles of criminalization has led us to the conclusion that there is a possibility of criminal intervention in the area of ​​personal identity through the four principles of the principle of harm, legal paternalism, morality and perfectionism. Also, numerous jurisprudential principles such as prohibition (theft, violation of the privacy of others, forgery, oppression and harassment) and the established jurisprudential rules, including the rule (prohibition of fraud, prohibition of disruption of the system, prohibition of consuming property falsely and respect), indicate the illegitimacy and illegality of this phenomenon. Therefore, in order to protect the health of society from financial and economic, social, security and... Corruption, identity theft can be considered forbidden and a crime. From a comparative study of laws related to identity theft, we find that only a few governments such as the United States and Canada have implemented special laws to prosecute identity theft as an independent crime. As a result, the need for such solutions has not been recognized globally, and Iranian law has not provided for identity theft in accordance with the Cybercrime Convention. Also, despite growing concerns about the harmful consequences of identity theft, Australian jurisdictions have not yet criminalized identity theft specifically, but have focused more on preventing social harm and losses that may result from the misuse of identification information.