Identity Theft
What is Identity theft?
Your personal information is valuable to criminals. If they can discover your personal details they can use them to open bank accounts and get credit cards, loans, state benefits and documents such as passports and driving licenses in your name. If your identity is stolen, you may have difficulty getting loans, credit cards or a mortgage until the matter is sorted out.
More than 100,000 people are affected by identity theft in the UK each year and the latest estimate is that identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.7 billion.
Criminals commit identity theft by stealing your personal information. This is often done by taking documents from your rubbish or by making contact with you and pretending to be from a legitimate organisation.
So don't throw away entire bills, receipts, credit-or debit-card slips, bank statements or even unwanted post in your name. For security, destroy unwanted documents using a shredder before putting them in the bin.
There are two types of personal or small office paper shredders.
Strip-Cut
Strip-cut shredders, also known as straight-cut or spaghetti-cut, slice the paper into long, thin strips. Strip-cut shredders can generally handle a higher volume of paper with lower maintenance requirements and they are cheaper to buy. But the security they offer is not as good as cross-cut shredders since the strips can be reassembled more easily.
Cross-Cut
Cross-cut shredders provide more security by cutting paper horizontally and vertically into very small pieces. The trade-off is these shredders may require need maintenance and generally cost more. It is possible to reconstruct any shredded document but cross-cut shredders make the job extemely difficult.
Tips To Keep your personal information secure
- Be extra careful if you live in a property where other people could have access to your mail. In some cases a bank or credit card company could arrange for you to collect valuable items such as new plastic cards or cheque books from a local branch.
- If you suspect your mail is being stolen, contact the Royal Mail Customer Enquiry Line: 08457 740 740. Check whether a mail redirection order has been made in your name without your knowledge.
- If you move house, tell your bank, card issuer and all other organisations that you deal with immediately. Ask the Royal Mail to redirect any mail from your old address to your new one for at least a year.
- Keep all your plastic cards safe. If your plastic cards are lost or stolen, cancel them immediately. Keep a note of the emergency numbers you should call.
- When giving your card details or personal information over the phone, Internet or in a shop, make sure other people cannot hear or see your personal information.
- Keep your personal documents and plastic cards in a safe place, preferably in a lockable drawer or cabinet at home. Consider storing valuable financial documents such as share certificates with your bank.
- If your passport or driving licence has been lost or stolen contact the issuing organisation immediately.
- Check bank statements and credit card statements as soon as they arrive. If any unfamiliar transactions are listed, contact the company concerned immediately.
- Never give personal or account details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. Be suspicious even if they claim to be from your bank or the police. Ask for their phone number, check it is genuine and, if so, call them back. Be aware that a bank will never ask for your PIN or for a whole security number or password. Keep them secure.
- Keep your passwords and PINs safe. Don't use the same password for more than one account and never use banking passwords for any other websites. Using different passwords increases security and makes it less likely that someone could access any other accounts.
- Keep your passwords safe and never record or store them in a manner which leaves them open to theft, such as in your purse or wallet.
- If you receive a suspicious e-mail purporting to be from a bona fide institution which requests personal details, click here for advice provided by the banking industry.
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