Ways it can happen to you

You should never underestimate the ingenuity of a criminal.  Despite your best efforts, it is not always possible to immune yourself from the identity theif.  Below are some of the common methods used by criminals to gain personal information needed for identity fraud.

• Loss or Theft of personal documents. Most criminals are opportunists, if you leave your bag on the train, you will lose it, along with anything that was in that bag. Often, credit cards, store cards, a driving licence etc. You may also lose your purse or wallet to pickpockets or your handbag to snatchers so watch out.
• Your home is burgled giving the criminal access to any sensitive information they can find.
• Your mail is intercepted. A considerable amount of personally identifiable information is sent through the mail. A criminal with access to this information would easily have enough to commit identity fraud. Sometimes a criminal will have your mail diverted or othertimes it may be a corrupt employee working for the mail service.
• You throw away personally identifiable information and someone retreives it from your rubbish. A nasty job but one that can reap rewards. Imagine getting access to a credit card with a £10,000 limit for 5 minutes scrummaging through a bin?
• You fall victim to a scam and hand over your personal information willingly only to find out later you were dealing with a conman.
• Your computer may be hacked compromising any information you have stored on it. Even information you don’t think is stored on your PC is actually stored on your hard drive unless you clear your hard drive regulaly.
• Your card is cloned and used to make purchases in your name. This can come about a variety of ways, for example:
  • The ATM machine you use has been tampered with;
  • An employee of a legimate business may swipe your card through a card reader to steal your details;
  • You may be talked into proving proof or identity and in the few seconds you hand your card over, it is scanned.