Identity Theft
Identity theft (identity hijacking) is quite simply the use of one or more
personal details of another person without their knowledge and or permission
normally to obtain goods, services or other. Identity fraud on the other hand is
the actual use of stolen details of another person which may be to obtain goods,
loans, state benefits, bank accounts, services or other but can cover anything
fraudulent such as obtaining false documents in another person’s name. Identity
theft may involve using your details to obtain a credit card in your name of
which you have no knowledge until your receive demands for payment, use of your
credit card number for online or telesales goods or use of a cloned card with
your credit card details programmed into the information strip.
Identity theft is an ever-growing problem for both card card holders and credit card companies as its use continues to grow. While many companies will now cover you for fraudulent use of your card or indeed a cloned credit card sorting out the aftermath of such fraud can be a traumatic and prolonged experience. It may not be a case of simply recovering your losses from your credit card company but also covering up the trail of misused identity details that may take some time. This can be due to your details being used in more than one instance of fraud and false addresses being used for correspondence to prevent you from being aware of what is taking place. Also fraud in your name may result in damaging your credit worthiness with appropriate agencies and you will need to correct any wrongly applied information being used to determine your credit status.
It goes without saying that prevention is far better than the cure in cases of identity theft. First step to prevention is understanding what details the fraudsters are looking for and how they may obtain these details. Almost all personal details will be of some use to someone so treat all information in the same careful way. Just about any detail can be of use to the identity criminal but some details are more commonly used in financial applications or for proving identity so are of increased value to the identity fraudster. These details should be very carefully protected and used. These include:
Your Full Name (rather obvious but just as easily overlooked)
Date and place of birth
Mother's maiden name
Current address, past address
Electoral role details
National Insurance number
Actual documents that are sought after include:
Current and old Passport s
Driving Licence
Birth certificate
Marriage certificate
Bank statements
credit card statements
Utility bills
Benefits books/slips
Tax and NI correspondence
Payslips
Educational certificates
Its quite surprising that even today people will treat their rubbish bin as their own private domain and simply place personal information in the bin with no other thought. With personal shredders being so cheap and easy to purchase there is no excuse for allowing any information you have discarded to be retrievable. Yes, criminals really do go through rubbish bins to obtain your details. So never allow letters with your name and address to be discarded intact, the same for all other documents with information such as utility bills, bank statements, credit card statements, letters, applications or anything with any information whatsoever. Also remember to shred your junk mail which normally have some of your details somewhere in their text. This includes pre-approved credit cards which can be activated by another person on your behalf.
More and more personal identification is being stolen via the internet. Popular methods include what are known as Phishing scams. These are emails which attempt to entice you into entering personal details into a website, normally by pretending to be a trusted party such as your current bank. It is surprising how many people are still tempted to enter all personal details including passwords simply because an email says it comes from their bank. Another popular method right now is pretending to be from Ebay and to protect your account you must re-enter your details. Quite simply never put personal information into a website unless you have gone to that site directly yourself. That means by typing the web address yourself into the address bar of your web browser. Never trust anything that asks you to go to a website by clicking a link.
Beware of cold calling from financial institutions. Its not uncommon for your bank to phone you with a marketing offer and go through security details with you to verify they are talking to the correct person. However be aware of how easy it is for any party to use that line to obtain your security details. It is good practice to never give out any security information over the phone unless you instigated the phone call to start with. This does not just apply to obvious security details but any cold call could result in some personal details being asked of you, never give out any details to any party you are not sure of and especially if you have not instigated the call.
Personal details can be stolen simply by what is known as shoulder-surfing. This means simply being close enough to a person when for example they are using their PIN number or making an application to be able to visually see and recall those details. Always cover as much as you can with your body with regards to what you are typing or writing. Be ware of anyone standing close by.
It is good practice to every few months obtain your credit report from UK.EXPERIAN.COM or EQUIFAX.CO.UK to ensure no additional bank accounts, loans, credit cards etc. have suddenly been issued without your knowledge. The cost of this is just a few pounds and is well worth the peace of mind.
Always make sure you take the time to check your bank and credit card statements for any purchases that you don’t recall making, no matter how small. Making infrequent tiny debits from an account is one method of fraud where it is hoped the amount is so small you don’t notice it or think its too small to chase up. However when the fraudsters are doing this to thousands of accounts it becomes a profitable scheme from their end.
Try not to have to write down your PIN numbers or passwords. For online passwords you can cheaply buy a password manager that will keep your passwords safely encrypted, you only need to recall a single password to open the software to retrieve all other passwords. If you must write down passwords or PIN numbers try to have a method of changing the numbers/letters so it's not totally obvious to a third party what the password is. For instance you could have a personal key of 2. This means anything you write is changed by two. If your password has the letter A write C instead. This is 2 up on the alphabet from the actual letter, or if the actual PIN has the number 4, write 6 instead, which is 2 up from the actual number.
Make sure your post is not compromised. Remember the amount of personal information that arrives by post is huge so reducing the chances of any post being intercepted is a top priority in preventing identity theft.
Identity theft is an ever-growing problem for both card card holders and credit card companies as its use continues to grow. While many companies will now cover you for fraudulent use of your card or indeed a cloned credit card sorting out the aftermath of such fraud can be a traumatic and prolonged experience. It may not be a case of simply recovering your losses from your credit card company but also covering up the trail of misused identity details that may take some time. This can be due to your details being used in more than one instance of fraud and false addresses being used for correspondence to prevent you from being aware of what is taking place. Also fraud in your name may result in damaging your credit worthiness with appropriate agencies and you will need to correct any wrongly applied information being used to determine your credit status.
It goes without saying that prevention is far better than the cure in cases of identity theft. First step to prevention is understanding what details the fraudsters are looking for and how they may obtain these details. Almost all personal details will be of some use to someone so treat all information in the same careful way. Just about any detail can be of use to the identity criminal but some details are more commonly used in financial applications or for proving identity so are of increased value to the identity fraudster. These details should be very carefully protected and used. These include:
Your Full Name (rather obvious but just as easily overlooked)
Date and place of birth
Mother's maiden name
Current address, past address
Electoral role details
National Insurance number
Actual documents that are sought after include:
Current and old Passport s
Driving Licence
Birth certificate
Marriage certificate
Bank statements
credit card statements
Utility bills
Benefits books/slips
Tax and NI correspondence
Payslips
Educational certificates
Its quite surprising that even today people will treat their rubbish bin as their own private domain and simply place personal information in the bin with no other thought. With personal shredders being so cheap and easy to purchase there is no excuse for allowing any information you have discarded to be retrievable. Yes, criminals really do go through rubbish bins to obtain your details. So never allow letters with your name and address to be discarded intact, the same for all other documents with information such as utility bills, bank statements, credit card statements, letters, applications or anything with any information whatsoever. Also remember to shred your junk mail which normally have some of your details somewhere in their text. This includes pre-approved credit cards which can be activated by another person on your behalf.
More and more personal identification is being stolen via the internet. Popular methods include what are known as Phishing scams. These are emails which attempt to entice you into entering personal details into a website, normally by pretending to be a trusted party such as your current bank. It is surprising how many people are still tempted to enter all personal details including passwords simply because an email says it comes from their bank. Another popular method right now is pretending to be from Ebay and to protect your account you must re-enter your details. Quite simply never put personal information into a website unless you have gone to that site directly yourself. That means by typing the web address yourself into the address bar of your web browser. Never trust anything that asks you to go to a website by clicking a link.
Beware of cold calling from financial institutions. Its not uncommon for your bank to phone you with a marketing offer and go through security details with you to verify they are talking to the correct person. However be aware of how easy it is for any party to use that line to obtain your security details. It is good practice to never give out any security information over the phone unless you instigated the phone call to start with. This does not just apply to obvious security details but any cold call could result in some personal details being asked of you, never give out any details to any party you are not sure of and especially if you have not instigated the call.
Personal details can be stolen simply by what is known as shoulder-surfing. This means simply being close enough to a person when for example they are using their PIN number or making an application to be able to visually see and recall those details. Always cover as much as you can with your body with regards to what you are typing or writing. Be ware of anyone standing close by.
It is good practice to every few months obtain your credit report from UK.EXPERIAN.COM or EQUIFAX.CO.UK to ensure no additional bank accounts, loans, credit cards etc. have suddenly been issued without your knowledge. The cost of this is just a few pounds and is well worth the peace of mind.
Always make sure you take the time to check your bank and credit card statements for any purchases that you don’t recall making, no matter how small. Making infrequent tiny debits from an account is one method of fraud where it is hoped the amount is so small you don’t notice it or think its too small to chase up. However when the fraudsters are doing this to thousands of accounts it becomes a profitable scheme from their end.
Try not to have to write down your PIN numbers or passwords. For online passwords you can cheaply buy a password manager that will keep your passwords safely encrypted, you only need to recall a single password to open the software to retrieve all other passwords. If you must write down passwords or PIN numbers try to have a method of changing the numbers/letters so it's not totally obvious to a third party what the password is. For instance you could have a personal key of 2. This means anything you write is changed by two. If your password has the letter A write C instead. This is 2 up on the alphabet from the actual letter, or if the actual PIN has the number 4, write 6 instead, which is 2 up from the actual number.
Make sure your post is not compromised. Remember the amount of personal information that arrives by post is huge so reducing the chances of any post being intercepted is a top priority in preventing identity theft.
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