Guest post: ID Theft and Paper Shredders
Posted under: Today we’d like to welcome a new member of the Scam Detectives blogging team. Chris Avery of shreddingmachines.co.uk will be writing about the methods used by Identity Thieves and how you can avoid falling victim to this horrible crime.
At Scam Detectives HQ we give you tips and advice to help protect your identity and one of the biggest tips we can give you is to use a paper shredder to destroy all sensitive information that someone could use to steal your identity.
Identity Theft involves someone stealing your identity and using it to their own financial advantage. The thieves will often manage to get away with hundreds or thousands of pounds before the person realises and by then it is too late. The thief will usually vanish without a trace and move onto their next victim. According to the Guardian newspaper, over 80,000 cases of Identity Theft were reported in 2009 which is 36% higher than the year before.
There are 6 main ways that someone can use your identity for their own personal gain:
1. Credit Card Fraud: This can occur when someone acquires your credit or debit card number and uses it to make a purchase, either in person or online.
2. Utilities Fraud: People with a poor credit rating will use someone else’s identity so that the water, gas or electricity companies will allow them to set up an account to use their services. It is becoming more and more common for these sorts of people to use the identity of a child (who has no credit history) for this sort of fraud as it may be many years before the person realises that their identity was stolen when they were younger.
3. Bank Fraud: This can include stealing someone’s cheque book, changing the amount written on a cheque if it’s not filled in properly or stealing the pin number for your credit or debit cards.
4. Employment Fraud: This usually occurs when someone who isn’t allowed to work in a particular country (perhaps they are an illegal immigrant) or a particular industry (as they don’t have the necessary qualifications) uses your identity in order to get a job.
5. Loan Fraud: This usually occurs when someone applies for a loan in your name
6. Government Fraud: This type of fraud includes tax fraud by sending your details to HMRC and using your tax free allowance or applying for a driving licence in your name. This driving licence can then be used to “prove” their identity to commit some of the other types of fraud above.
Many of you may or may not know that it is National Identity Fraud Prevention Week™ between the 18th and 24th of October. This week was set up by the shredder manufacturer Fellowes is designed to raise awareness about ID Theft and offers practical advice on how to protect your identity. Their website can be found here: http://www.stop-idfraud.co.uk/
Many people simply throw away:
• Old Bills
• Bank Statements
• Old Tax Return information
• Receipts/Invoices from companies you order from online
• Old Passports/Driving Licences
• Anything with their name and address on it
This makes it so easy for potential thieves to steal your identity as you are just giving them this information for nothing. If you use a shredder to destroy this sort of information then it makes this person’s job much harder.
The sad truth is that most people (including the father in law of one of us here at Scam Detectives HQ) start to worry about identity theft and corporate fraud only after it has actually happened to them. They always say things like “if only I had..” or “why didn’t I just..”. Our advice is do not wait until National Identity Fraud Prevention Week™, use a paper shredder NOW before it’s too late!
Hi
Great information in this post and I think the thieves will often manage to get away with hundreds or thousands of pounds before the person realises and by then it is too late. The thief will usually vanish without a trace and move onto their next victim.