ID fraud hits 'one in ten'
Wednesday, 09 Aug 2006 06:43
Identity fraudsters often use household bills to commit their crime
Almost one in ten Britons claim to have been the victim of identity fraud, a new survey has revealed.
Some nine per cent of the 2,200 people questioned on behalf of electricity company npower, said they thought their identity had been stolen – the equivalent of about six million people across the country.
The survey, conducted by YouGov, found that those aged under 30 are the most vulnerable to identity theft because they are the least aware of how to protect their personal information.
Nearly a third (28 per cent) of those within the age group said they had no idea that a utility bill could be used to steal their identity.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) also admitted to willingly giving pin numbers or bank details to friends and family.
The majority of those under 30-years-old (81 per cent) said they had no idea what their credit rating was, while 59 per cent acknowledged that they did not know how to go about finding out what it was.
Today's research also found that people were particularly prone to falling victim to identity theft when they moved house, with a number of those questioned reporting that their energy bills and bank statements went astray when they relocated.
Zoe Coombs, npower spokeswoman, warned that August was the most popular time of year for people to move house and that the risk of identity theft is currently higher as homeowners cancel and subscribe to new services without taking adequate precautionary measures to protect their personal information.
"The under-30s are at higher risk of becoming victims or of putting others at risk as they are more likely to be nomadic, living in rented properties, moving out of university halls and so on," said Ms Coombs.
"It is vital that they are educated to dispose of documents responsibly and do the same with other people's mail, as well as to inform their energy supplier and so on of their move," she added.
Professor Martin Gill, identity theft specialist and professor of criminology at Leicester University, said the number of identity thefts in the UK was probably far higher than reported.
"Official statistics relating to cases of ID theft are not indicative of the true scale of this growing crime. Many cases go unrecorded or undetected," he said.
According to Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, the number of reported cases of identity theft rose from 20,000 in 1999 to 137,000 in 2005.
The National Consumer Council claims that the crime costs the UK economy around £1.7 billion a year.
Commenting on today's survey, Neil Munroe, director of external affairs at credit monitoring firm Equifax, said: "If you think you may have fallen victim take action straight away. Better still take steps in order to protect yourself against the crime. Prevention is definitely better than cure."