Identity Theft
There’s a growing list of stories about people becoming the
casualty of ID fraud where money is removed illegally from bank
accounts or goods bought over the Internet. The Home Office
recently put the cost to British citizens at around £1.7 billion
each year; that’s around £30 for every man, woman and child in
the United Kingdom. ID fraud is usually taken to mean using the
identity of a person without their express consent, for a
purpose that the person is not aware of and does not approve.
What ID Theft Mean?
Usually, the criminal will steal credit cards, birth
certificates, utility bills and bank statements and use them to
open new bank accounts or obtain new credit cards in your name.
Criminals get these items either by direct theft or by simply
raiding your dustbin. Sometimes they do it by attempting to have
your post re-directed to another address and then reporting a
theft of cheque books or credit cards with a view to obtaining
replacements sent out by the various financial institutions.
On other occasions, they will contact you on the telephone or
by email.
Your personal laptop or home desktop computer is also a very
attractive target for obtaining important information including
your passwords to electronic banking or Internet retail
accounts.
What to do if it happens to you?
Once it’s happened, there is little that you can do other
than calling your bank and credit card companies to stop all the
stolen credit cards. Even though chip-and-PIN technology is
making it much harder for fraudsters, not all retailers have
adopted it and fraud is still possible as “card not present” or
signature fraud in countries that have not adopted the
technology.
You should certainly report the fraud to the police and it’s
worth changing the PINs for all of your credit and debit cards.
You should also ask the credit reference companies such as
Equifax for a copy of your credit file to check that it is
completely accurate.
Finally, you can register with CIFAS for protective
registration that will ensure that any future credit card
applications are fully validated before approval. CIFAS is
a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1988 by the consumer
credit industry to protect its members and the public from
fraud. When you register, a warning is placed against your
address which indicates that you have requested that your
details have been recorded on the CIFAS database for your
protection. When CIFAS members make a search against your
address they will see this message - "CIFAS-DO NOT REJECT-REFER
FOR VALIDATION" and they will then contact Equifax to establish
the reason for the entry.
Prevention is Better than Cure
Of course, the best approach is to try to stop identity fraud
in the first place and there are a number of simple you can do
that will help.
