Identity Theft

Identity theft is the misuse of the identification of another person, without their knowledge or consent, usually to obtain a facility - such as a mobile phone, insurance, a loan or other financial product or service by deception.

Any person can be an unsuspecting victim of identity theft. In reality if you have a good credit rating and you are in a reasonable financial position the more likely it is for a fraudster to want to assume your identity. Typically this will involve the use of stolen or forged documentation.

Organisations, as well as individuals, can experience difficulty and loss as the result of fraudulent activity. You could be held accountable for the actions of a fraudster and may have to liaise with lenders to provide evidence that certain transactions in question were not initiated by you, such as the application for a loan, or goods paid for by credit card that you never ordered or received.

Identity theft is on the increase, but there are warning signs that your credit rating may be at risk;

• If you discover that personal documentation has been stolen you should notify the Police straight away and insist upon receiving a crime reference number to document the incident. You should also contact your credit card, store card and bank account providers so that misplaced or stolen cards can be cancelled and replaced with a new PIN that hasn’t been compromised.

• Your credit report is a document compiled by a Credit Reference Agency of your credit history and current credit standing. Checking your credit report on a regular basis will help you monitor any potentially fraudulent activity. If you notice any changes that you did not consent to then you should contact the Credit Reference Agency who supplied your credit report as soon as you can. The longer you leave it the more damage the fraudster could cause to your credit report through arrears, for accounts you never even opened, defaults, and even CCJs. How to get your credit report

• If bank or credit card statements that you would normally receive on a monthly basis fail to reach you, or you notice that some of your post goes missing, you should contact the investigations unit of your local Post Office who can assist you. If you change address you should use the Royal Mails Redirection Service to forward your post to your new address. However, if you do not have a change of address but your post fails to reach you, check that a re-direction service has not been set up without your consent. Over two thirds of identity thefts occur from either intercepted post or post that is re-directed to a collection address.

• Check any statements you receive thoroughly; see if any unexpected charges appear for items you did not order.

• Protect your identity online; never reply to emails asking for a PIN, the security code on the back of a card, account numbers, sort codes or passwords. Do not enter private information into a website that you are uncertain of. Try to limit the information you supply on social networking sites; your date of birth and nickname for example could give a fraudster the information needed to guess what your passwords or personal identification numbers could be.

• Do not provide sensitive information, such as PIN’s or passwords to unknown callers. Genuine businesses will normally ask for individual digits within you PIN for instance. If you believe the caller may not be legitimate then end the call, if need be you can find the telephone number for the company that supposedly called you in the phone book and call them back.

• Shred any personal information that you wish to dispose of. Identity thieves willingly go through rubbish to see if they is anything of use.

• Register to vote at your current address. If you are not registered on the electoral roll (or electoral register), somebody impersonating you may be able to register your details elsewhere and use this as proof of address. If you are not currently on the electoral roll, or you have changed address and need to update your details, simply contact your local council. Alternatively visit www.aboutmyvote.co.uk where you can print off the necessary form, sign it, and put it in the post.

If you believe you are a victim of identity theft you should contact CIFAS straight away. CIFAS is the UK’s fraud prevention service developed to assist in the prevention of fraudulent activity. CIFAS intention is to protect innocent individuals whose identity is used fraudulently by others to obtain credit.

An individual can place a CIFAS warning against their own address on their credit report if they have good reason to believe their identification has been misused.

If you apply to include this information on your credit report you will be asked to supply information that can be used to verify the authenticity of any applications made in your name. This will help to prevent your identity being used further.