Surge in identity theft by criminals applying for bogus insurance policies

 Insurance fraud is at “epidemic levels” after an exponential increase in criminals applying for bogus policies in order to build up detailed profiles of victims.

Data from Cifas, a fraud prevention service, shows identity fraud rose to a record high in the first six months of the year. A record 89,000 identity frauds were logged, up 5 per cent from last year, it said.

Identity theft represents more than half of all fraud recorded, it said, with 83 per cent of cases occurring online.

In the past year there has been a sharp increase in insurance fraud, where a criminal takes out a policy in someone else’s name. In the first half of 2016 there were 20 cases compared with 2,070 in the first half of 2017.

Fraud experts at Cifas said obtaining insurance policies was a new trick used by fraudsters to build up a detailed enough profile of someone to use their ID to steal from them. The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday that millennials are more likely than pensioners to be targeted by fraudsters for the first time, because they do not check bank statements.

Analysis of millions of credit files by the credit checking firm, Experian, found people in their mid to late 20s had overtaken over-60s as the most likely age group to fall victim to fraud.

Simon Dukes, Cifas chief executive, said: “We have seen identity fraud attempts increase year on year, now reaching epidemic levels, with identities being stolen at a rate of almost 500 a day. These frauds are taking place almost exclusively online.

“Criminals are relentlessly targeting consumers and businesses and we must all be alert to the threat and do more to protect personal information. For smaller and medium-sized businesses, they must focus on educating staff on good cyber security behaviours and raise awareness of the social engineering techniques employed by fraudsters.

“Relying solely on new fraud prevention technology is not enough.”