one possible scenario accounting for difference between fraud value of credit cards and identification cards is that credit cards have had a primarily "online infrastructure" where each use is tracked and recorded ... and can be "deactivated". identification cards have tended to be offline infrastructure where use and activity haven't tended to involve online operations with each use being tracked and recorded and there tends to not be an easy online deactivation.
in that sense the card card would be considered only a very small feature of a more extensive online operation ... where identification cards are typically operate independent of a much more extensive infrastructure. Another view point is a credit card (as part of an online infrastructure) tends to be purely authentication and authorization is embodied in the online infrastructure. identification cards would not only represent authentication, but in an offline paradigm, would implicitly carry the sense of authorization.
something similar can be cited for past discussion of "yes card" vulnerability
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#yescard
and/or even PKI .... which i've repeatedly claimed had design point trade-off for the offline email operation of the early 80s and/or letters of credit/introduction from sailing ship days. the "credentials" represented a "better than nothing" solution in a purely offline environment where the relying party had access to no other information regarding the party (first time interaction with complete stranger) they were dealing with. Given any online infrastructure and/or any sort of timely interaction with responsible authority, the "better than nothing" solution (designed for the offline environment) becomes a very poor substitute (possibly being restricted to purely no-value operations).
lots of past posts about mentioning "offline solutions" becoming limited to no-value applications when higher quality "online solutions" are available as an alternative
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#42 ALARMED ... Only Mostly Dead ... RIP PKI ... part III
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#26 I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-pkix-usergroup-01.txt
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#27 Employee Certificates - Security Issues
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#52 First Data Unit Says It's Untangling Authentication
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#55 TTPs & AADS (part II)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm16.htm#22 Ousourced Trust (was Re: Difference between TCPA-Hardware and a smart card and something else before
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm19.htm#8 GeoTrust says existing PKI practices are worthless
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm20.htm#33 How many wrongs do you need to make a right?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm20.htm#42 Another entry in the internet security hall of shame
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm20.htm#44 Another entry in the internet security hall of shame
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm21.htm#20 Some thoughts on high-assurance certificates
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm21.htm#36 browser vendors and CAs agreeing on high-assurance certificates
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm26.htm#1 Extended Validation - setting the minimum liability, the CA trap, the market in browser governance
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm26.htm#25 EV - what was the reason, again?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm26.htm#27 man in the middle, SSL ... addenda
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm26.htm#34 Failure of PKI in messaging
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm26.htm#41 PKI: The terrorists' secret weapon (part II)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm27.htm#23 Identity resurges as a debate topic
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm27.htm#26 A crazy thought?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002m.html#30 Root certificate definition
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002n.html#42 Help! Good protocol for national ID card?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#56 Certificate Authority: Industry vs. Government
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#57 Certificate Authority: Industry vs. Government
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002p.html#22 Cirtificate Authorities 'CAs', how curruptable are they to
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003l.html#33 RSA vs AES
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#25 Who is the most likely to use PK?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#52 The SOB that helped IT jobs move to India is dead!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#20 Soft signatures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004j.html#2 Authenticated Public Key Exchange without Digital Certificates?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005e.html#62 TLS-certificates and interoperability-issues sendmail/Exchange/postfix
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005g.html#34 Maximum RAM and ROM for smartcards
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#0 More Phishing scams, still no SSL being used
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#12 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#13 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#24 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#29 More Phishing scams, still no SSL being used
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#60 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#11 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#21 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#25 PKI Crypto and VSAM RLS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#29 Importing CA certificate to smartcard
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#33 More Phishing scams, still no SSL being used
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#36 More Phishing scams, still no SSL being used
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#37 More Phishing scams, still no SSL being used
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#49 phishing web sites using self-signed certs
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#0 TTP and KCM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#16 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#39 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#29 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#31 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#35 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#28 confidence in CA
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006i.html#13 Multi-layered PKI implementation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#51 other cp/cms history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#30 T.J. Maxx data theft worse than first reported
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#22 sizeof() was: The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?