Don’t give passport details away without some security checks
WHILE checking out some details on Alan Taylor’s question on this page today I decided to have a look at my own state pension entitlement.
I logged on to the www.gov.uk website and realised I had to set up a Gateway account in order to access the pension information I was looking for.
I was a bit surprised to discover that three of four pages in I was asked for my passport details – number and expiry date.
I’ve said many times on these pages that you shouldn’t give out personal information online unless you are sure of the identity of the people asking for it, and I have gone so far as to suggest reputable companies wouldn’t be asking for that information in the first place.
So why were HMRC looking for my passport details?
I was reassured when I checked to make sure that I was indeed on HMRC website and that it was a secure site – remember that you can check that you are on a secure site by looking for a padlock symbol next to the address.
But I still wasn’t confident enough to give out my passport details so I called HMRC to confirm that they did indeed ask for that information as part of the registration process.
The answer was yes and then I asked them why, given that people such as myself regularly tell our readers not to give out that sort of information.
The answer was that by giving them this information the site itself would be more secure and there would be less chance of other people going on and being able to access my details.
Was I satisfied by that response?
Yes, I was. I had checked that I was on the correct site, and I know that I have up to date anti-virus and malware programs on my computer so I felt it was secure.
And the fact that I could pick up the phone and confirm that the information that I was being asked for was really being asked for was reassuring as well.