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How to win through the ID fraud obstacle race It has never been more gruelling to stay ahead of the criminals who compete to steal your ID, take over your accounts and run up debts in your name. From the moment your post is delivered in the morning to the time you log off a favourite social network at night, there are hazards built into your routine. Getting past them safely is a 21st century equivalent of winning an old-fashioned obstacle race. Here we show what to look out for and how to make it safely through. Picking up the post The most common way to steal an ID is to hijack a victims current address and post. This accounted for 36 per cent of all cases in 2008, according to research from the ID fraud protection service CreditExpert. Close behind came frauds using the victims previous address, at 30 per cent, while in 29 per cent of cases crooks forwarded post. The haul can be impressive, from bank and card statements to catalogue account details, utility and mobile airtime bills. Armed with this information, it is easy to impersonate you, clean out your accounts, max out your cards and acquire money, goods and services that will never be paid for. What to do: If post you expect does not arrive, inform the Royal Mail and the senders as soon as possible. If you live in a building with a communal delivery point, install lockable, individual mail boxes. Always redirect your post for at least a year when your move home as a single errant letter could be enough to get an ID fraudster started. Checking your e-mails We all get phishing e-mails which get past even the most efficient spam filters. Some tell you that you have won a fortune in a lottery. Others offer you a cut of a massive inheritance if you help to get it out of some distant country. A third variety masquerades as coming from your bank or card issuer and redirects you to a website where you are asked to input account and personal data to update your account security. All of them aim to gather data that can be used to steal your money and trash your credit status. What to do: Delete unsolicited e-mails immediately as 99 per cent of us fail to observe this simple precaution, according to a recent survey by PC Tools. Alert any organisation a dubious e-mail purports to come from, using the phone number or e-mail address you already have or one you look up on the Internet as contact information in the e-mail or website could send you straight back to the criminals. Never click on links in these e-mails as you could unwittingly give a virus access to your computer and all the information in it, especially if you are one of the 43 per cent of us who either have no security software installed or never update it. On the move with your mobile or laptop Increasingly, we are always online, whether via our mobiles or laptops but that makes us vulnerable. Texts can be infected and allow the sender to take over your phone, wi-fi can be eavesdropped and sensitive information can be memorised or photographed by the stranger who gets a bit close in the rush hour. What to do: Avoid accessing your online bank, paying bills or sending payment data in a public place as you could be overlooked. Avoid using public wi-fi when dealing with sensitive information, whether its personal details or work projects. Do not store passwords or PINs where they can be found if your device is lost or stolen. Putting out the rubbish A clear-out is good for the soul and the temptation is to throw out anything and everything thats out of date. But think before you fill the bin as criminals have been known to go through the rubbish in search of useful documents. What to do: Shred or burn anything that could be useful to an ID thief, such as bank or card statements and bills. Cut your full name, address and account number out of catalogues before you put them in the recycling. You do not want a criminal hijacking your account. Do not put your rubbish out overnight. Try and minimise the time that its vulnerable by waiting until the bin men are in the street. Online socialising Millions of us log on every day to catch up with our real and virtual friends, share jokes, hear the latest gossip and debate the trends. It is a liberating environment where you can be as glamorous, witty and intimate as you like. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to let slip information thats a gift to an ID thief. Organised gangs now patrol the most popular networking sites, hoping to hoover up details that will allow them to take over our finances. What to do: Use the privacy settings, so only your real friends have access to anything you want to keep secret from the world. It is not a competition to have the most friends. Turn away total strangers and check with friends if newcomers claim to have been referred by them. Do not give too much away like nicknames, dates of birth, children and pets names and anything else that you use as a PIN or password should not be publicly accessible. If you only do one thing to stay safe Check your credit report regularly. The Home Office recommend it as an effective precaution against ID fraud. Your credit report contains the history of your credit accounts, from cards and loans to catalogue and mobile airtime accounts. It includes details of new applications, your repayment record, your address and more, so it is easy to spot suspicious items such as a new account you never opened or a balance that has suddenly soared. Then you can act fast to stop problems developing. You can see your Experian credit report for free with a 30-day trial of CreditExpert. You will also be alerted to any significant changes to your credit report that could indicate ID fraud and you will gain peace of mind. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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