National Identity Fraud Prevention Week

It could happen to you!

A recent survey by credit reference agency Callcredit found that on average, one in every 1000 people in the UK had already been a victim of identity theft.

Mr A, 40, had £9,000 taken out of his accounts by criminals. Mr A suspects that the criminals got hold of his details from a number of statements he threw away the week prior to the identity fraud.

Using Mr A's bank account details, the fraudsters called his bank to change his mailing address. They then requested a new debit card and PIN to be sent to the new address. The criminals transferred £9,000 out of his bank account. Luckily, Mr A spotted this transfer two days later, and reported it to his bank. The bank investigated the claim, and returned the money after two weeks.

Mr A now has to answer extra security questions in order to get information on all his accounts. However, the impact of having his identity stolen meant that he was unable to do any online shopping or banking for a month. Just two months ago, the same bank was sent a fraudulent letter asking for Mr A's address to be changed. It seemed the criminals were not stopping there, as another bank informed Mr A the following month that someone had attempted to open a new account in his name online. The only reason why this was detected was because an unknown address has been entered.

Mr A is now very careful of disposing of his letters, making sure he shreds anything with his name and address or personal details, and also makes sure all his accounts are monitored.

Mr A is now very careful of disposing of his letters, making sure he shreds anything with his name and address or personal details, and also makes sure all his accounts are monitored.

Key piece of advice from Mr A:
“ Always be aware of what transactions are going through your account, even if that means saving every single receipt you have. Straight after the incident I bought a shredder so that I could get rid of my letters safely. After having my identity targeted three times I became very cautious, but now because I shred everything I can throw away my mail with peace of mind. Another thing I have found very useful is to check my credit rating on a regular basis. This way you are made aware of any other addresses or accounts that are linked to you.”

Mrs J was planning a party and decided, as many of us would, to do much of the necessary shopping – for balloons, drinks, nibbles etc - online.

As she felt that she’d spent quite a lot of money, she decided to check exactly how much she’d spent before she got too carried away. In doing so, Mrs J was shocked to find out that there were over £1000 worth of discrepancies listed on her statement. Mrs J called her bank, but it said it couldn’t help her until all of her other transactions had gone through.

Mrs J was then told that £300 was spent on a new mobile phone, £100 was spent on a website domain and a further £600 on webhosting facilities. Looking back, Mrs J could remember having her card declined a week previously and therefore had to call up a certain company and give her details over the phone. This, Mrs J believes, is how the fraudster got her account details and stole her identity.

Mrs J informed the police, her bank set up a new account and four months later she was told that the issue had been resolved. But Mrs J never found out how or why somebody decided to steal her identity, or who had done it.

She did some investigating of her own and discovered the home address of the fraudster and the fact that the website was never set up, but that he/she did receive a brand new mobile phone worth £300.

Even a piece of mis-directed junk mail can be enough for a thief to steal your identity, as Mrs E discovered when she and her husband took early retirement, sold their family business and moved to another part of the country to be nearer their grandchildren.

The couple did the right thing by asking the Post Office to re-direct their mail to their new address for the next six months. Mrs E also told the local authority that she would no longer be liable for council tax at the old address but did not specifically ask for her name to be removed from the electoral roll.

First, there were problems with the re-direction service. “I realised there was something wrong because I hadn’t received my usual Christmas cards,” says Mrs E. “When the postman asked the new shop-owners for any post that had been delivered for us, they said they had thrown everything away.”

The re-direction service was reinstated and extended a couple of months by the Post Office – but as soon as the service finished, the fraud started. A former next-door neighbour rang Mrs E to tell her that she had taken delivery of a parcel from a mail-order company. It was addressed to her at her old address and inside were curtains and bedding, plus an invoice.

Mrs E rang the company and confirmed that she had not ordered the goods. It promptly stopped another parcel of goods, also ordered in her name at the old address.

Meanwhile, the fraudsters opened another account with the same group. Mrs E had to send her birth certificate and copies of a solicitor's letter, confirming the sale of their property, to establish she was who she said she was – and that she had not set up the account herself.

This new account was with a company from whom Mrs E had received a catalogue six years earlier. Although she had not ordered anything from them, they had continued to send her mailshots.

Mrs E reported the fraud to the police and they advised her to contact a credit reference agency.

“They were wonderful,” says Mrs E. “I was so upset, I cried when I told them what had happened and they couldn’t have been kinder. I had to fill in a form and send them a couple of utility bills, to prove who I was. Then they sent me my credit report and asked me to check it for anything I didn’t recognise.”

Mrs E noticed another mail order account that she had not opened. Sure enough, she also received demands from a debt-collection agency on behalf of this company.

The credit reference agency cleared all the fraudulent accounts from Mrs E’s credit report and added a Notice, which allowed her to protect it with a password. “Now, if a company wants to search my file, they have to ask me first for the password. That way, only I can authorise searches,” explains Mrs E. “Unfortunately, the people who were using my identity were able to set up two more accounts in my name before the password-protection was established.”

The credit reference agency also advised her to register with the mail preference service to stop junk mail in her name being delivered to her old address.

Altogether, the fraudsters managed to set up five accounts in Mrs E’s name and got away with goods worth around £1,000. She discovered the fifth account when the credit reference agency sent her an update to her credit report. By then, she knew what to do and asked them to clear it.

“What I couldn’t understand was that each of the applications had a different – incorrect – date of birth, which wasn’t picked up by anybody,” says Mrs E.

“You can’t assume that lenders will notice errors and it's clearly worth checking your credit report regularly to make sure nothing unexpected is going on. If I hadn’'t checked, I would not have known so quickly about the other accounts.”

It took almost nine months for Mrs E to sort everything out. During that time, she had difficulty sleeping and became very anxious whenever the postman delivered a letter from an unknown source.

“I shred everything now and I’'m really careful about giving away any personal details, such as on marketing surveys. I hadn't realised how easy it is to become a victim of fraud, even when you think you. done all the right things.”

Company X, a London-based small business has recently had its identity stolen. They are registered with a credit reference agency that offers a company risk monitoring service. Company X received an email from their agency telling them that a new filing had been made at Companies House in its name. After contacting Companies House to ask for an explanation, it transpired that actually someone had done a new filing that specifically changed the registered office of the company to another London address.

Without knowing what implications this would have, Company X then immediately contacted the Police and had exchanges with Companies House and solicitors. But from then on a lengthy and harrowing process took place to put things right. The company had to file a correcting 287 to restore the proper registered office details, which led to having to go to the High Court to get a declaration and a Court Order before Companies House would actually remove the unauthorised changes. Additionally it was necessary to inform all the suppliers, including banks and insurers and check the business’s assets. The Federation of Small Businesses was also of great support giving the company vital support and advice.

The business then also had their name plate stolen from outside their offices and had the SIC code of the company changed to that of a Computer Wholesales (a completely different business than that of Company X).

The impact this had on the Company X’s business was very negative. The business felt ‘under attack’ and had to operate in ‘lock down’ mode until all was sorted out. The company’s managing director spent a considerable amount of time protecting the company and restoring everything, it thus had to cancel key product launches impacting directly onto the business’s finances and revenue.

Mr X, managing director of Company X says “In business you tend to hear the word fraud and you conclude that this is about an internal failure or theft, lack of financial controls. You do not tend to consider that a fraud can happen like this. Corporate identity fraud is a crime that you have little control over within your business. The only means you have to prevent this are to ensure that you file with secured passwords etc or that you have an effective monitoring system in place to alert you if unfortunately you do become a victim of this crime. For any business but particularly as a small business this fraud could be devastating and put in jeopardy everything you have ever worked for.”

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Stuart, aged 34, had a staggering £22,000 stolen through fraudulent means from his business and personal bank accounts two years ago.

Stuart runs his own coaching and training company for businesses. He had his wallet stolen whilst attending a training course in Northampton. He left his jacket on the back of his chair throughout the day and when he got up to leave he noticed his jacket felt lighter- and his wallet had been stolen.

Immediately, he called all his banks to put a stop on his cards, but due to the fact that he was told he did not answer all the security questions correctly, the banks were unable to take any action.

Once he returned home, his wife informed Stuart that someone from the council had called earlier that day, claiming they had a returned cheque from a council tax refund, and were calling to check Stuart’s address. She gave the caller their address and corrected him when he got Stuart’s mother’s maiden name wrong.

Stuart’s bank had also called that day. Unable to get in contact with him, they said they would call back later, and reassured his wife that everything was fine.

What in fact had happened was that the criminals had used the personal information from Stuart’s credit card, driving licence and conversation with his wife, to fake his identification and fraudulently take £4,000 from his business card (over the counter from the bank), £300 from his bank account, £14,000 from his Visa card, spent £2,500 to buy a video camera and £1,000 in a clothing shop.

The incident was seriously stressful for both Stuart and his wife and affected their business and personal accounts. For Stuart, this was a major distraction to his coaching and training business, due to the time spent trying to solve the crime. In total, he experienced four months of “hell”, trying to get his identity back and sort out the crime. In addition, Stuart had to go away for a business trip the day after the incident, and so had to borrow money to fund it. In the end, all the money was eventually recovered.

Key piece of advice from Stuart:
“ I would advise everyone to never use their mother’s real maiden name as a security answer, as it is just too difficult to keep it a secret. Use something funny or even stupid, call her Posh Spice or Domestos if you have to. Also, I’ve learnt to leave my driving licence at home, and to stop carrying all my credit and debits cards with me – you should keep a couple of them at home, just so that you are covered financially if the others are lost.”

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