Everyone is in danger from ID fraud, both as individuals and as businesses. Finding out that you have been defrauded due to Identity Theft is not just an inconvenience, it can be emotionally devastating.
Unfortunately ID theft is still increasing. The latest estimates from CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, show that in the first 9 months of 2009, nearly 60,000 Britons fell victim to identity fraud – a big increase on the year before.
How do the thieves steal your identity?
Information about you or your company is valuable to identity fraudsters and organised criminal gangs. ID Theft can take place when fraudsters gain access to personal or confidential information about you or your business and then use it to open bank accounts and take out credit cards in your name and then use those accounts to purchase goods or take out loans.
Crooks can discover your sensitive data by:
- Redirecting your post unofficially
- Stealing credit card statements and other key information from bins (known as bin raiding). Utilise a Fellowes Shredder to put a stop to this.
- Some braver thieves may even call you claiming to be from your credit card company, and asking you to provide answers to security questions before they will proceed!
How best to protect yourself against Identity Theft?
- Always be wary of people phoning you claiming to be from your bank. Unfortunately, occasionally these card companies do call you legitimately and will often ask you to confirm your ID before continuing (even though they rang you!) – this makes it hard to spot the difference between fraudsters and authentic callers. If unsure the best thing to do is ask for their contact details and offer to call them back – then check out the phone number provided on their website.
- Never click on links in e-mails that claim to be from your bank, even if it looks to be authentic. If the email looks authentic and is asking you to log in to your account for some reason, then always type the web address by hand or by using a bookmark you have previously made – never use the link in the email.
- Contact you bank if you discover that your statements have stopped arriving in the mail
- Most importantly, do not throw out any statements that contains details of your account numbers, nor any documentation that may incorporate clues to common security question responses.
If you need to dispose of such documents you should shred them first, preferably using a Fellowes Particle Cut Shredder as these provide a greater level of security.
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