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ABOUT ID FRAUD
IT IS YOUR IDENTITY, YOU MUST PROTECT IT!
We are all at risk from ID fraud, as individuals and as businesses. Finding out that you have become
a victim of ID Theft is not just an inconvenience, it can be devastating.
In addition to the emotional and psychological cost, it can take months and cost thousands of pounds to recover your identity.
Unfortunately ID theft is still on the increase. The latest figures 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 36% increase when compared with the same period in 2008!
HOW CAN YOUR IDENTITY BE STOLEN?
Information about you or your company is valuable to identity thieves and organised criminal gangs.
ID Theft can occur when criminals gain access to personal or confidential information about you or your
business and then use it to order goods or services, or even take out loans, credit cards or open bank accounts
in your or your business’s name.
Criminals can access your confidential data by:
- Stealing bags/wallets
- Stealing bank statements and other key information from bins (known as bin raiding)
- Redirecting your post unofficially to another address
- Sending bogus emails to trick you into providing sensitive information (Phishing)
THE FACTS ABOUT ID FRAUD:
- ID fraud costs the UK economy over £1.2 billion annually
- 44% of Britons STILL DON’T use shredders to dispose of documents containing sensitive information before placing them in the bin*
- 97% of UK employees believe that their company does not completely protect customers’ identities*
* Research conducted by Dynamic Markets, 2009
For more information about preventing ID Fraud, please visit www.stop-idfraud.co.uk