Beat the ID thieves
...with a little help from Dolly Parton, Yoko Ono and a motorbike
I DENTITY theft is the fastest growing crime in Britai n, with young people increasingly targeted by cyber- fraudsters. In the first six months of this year there were a record 89,000 identity thefts committed by financial fraudsters – with four out of five conducted online.
Once the thieves get their hands on personal details they can go on a spending spree, taking out loans and buying items in the victim’s name and plundering their bank account.
Traditionally, thieves have focused on vulnerable elderly customers or middle-aged people with healthy bank balances and a good credit score so it is easier to borrow in their name.
But over the past year the number of under-21s hit by ID theft has doubled, while a third of all victims are now aged under 40.
Many younger people are falling victim to identity theft as a result of using online shopping websites or taking out a mobile phone contract. They are also regular users of social media and prone to revealing valuable information such as birthdays and holiday details. Sharp-eyed fraudsters even get details when bank cards are accidentally shown in photos put online.
Canadian-born Kara Eigl, 37, discovered she had been a victim of a mobile phone scam last month, but only after looking at her latest bank statement.
Kara, a marketing manager from Central London, says: ‘I discovered £38 a month was being taken out of my bank account – and I had no idea where the money was going. It had been going on for a couple of months.
‘It was only after a number of credit reference agencies wrote to me asking that I check for any unusual activity on my bank account that I bothered to dig out my statements and discovered the fraud.’
Kara had received letters from credit reference agencies Callcredit, Equifax and Experian all stating she could be a victim of fraud. She called her bank, NatWest, which confirmed it was identity fraud and refunded her.
Although Kara was not sure how the fraudsters got her details – or why they took only small amounts from her bank account rather than clean her out – fraud experts say it follows a well-known pattern increasingly popular among thieves.
Nick Mothershaw, director of fraud and identity solutions at Experian, says: ‘This bears the hallmarks of a classic modern scam. It appears the payment was made to a third-party outfit linked to a phone contract provider. The payments were small enough to fall under the victim’s radar but the thief probably made away with a brand new £800 phone.’
This is because the phone contract deal is l i kely to have included a free phone, such as a top-of-the-range iPhone8.
How Kara’s personal information was gleaned for the phone fraud may never be known, but there are several ways this could have been done.
Criminals often pick sufficient personal bank information from a cheque or card payment made over the phone.
Thieves then use these details to purchase goods, arranging for t hem t o be sent t o another address or intercepting them before they arrive.
Sandra Peaston, a director at fraud prevention organisation Cifas, says: ‘When it comes to personal property we make sure our front doors are locked.
‘But for some strange reason most of us are not so careful when it comes to cyber-crime. People must take online security more seriously.’