We are all at risk from ID fraud, both as individuals and as businesses. Finding out that you have become a victim of Identity Theft is not just an inconvenience, it can be devastating.

Regrettably ID fraud is still growing. The latest estimates from CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, show that in in 2009, over 60,000 Britons were duped by identity fraud – a massive increase on the year before.

How is your identity stolen?

Information about you or your business is valued by identity thieves and organised criminal gangs. Identity Theft can come about when thieves gain access to personal or confidential information about you or your company and then use it to open bank accounts and take out credit cards in your name and then use those accounts to purchase goods or take out loans.

Fraudsters can get at your secret information by:

• Stealing bags / wallets
• Stealing bank statements and other crucial info from waste bins (known as bin raiding).  Use a Fellowes Shredder to prevent this.
• Sending fictitious emails to fool you into supplying confidential info (Phishing)

How should you defend yourself against Identity Fraud?

• Always be suspicious of people calling you claiming to be from your bank. Unfortunately, occasionally these card companies do call you legitimately and will frequently ask you to confirm your ID before continuing (even though they phoned you!) – this makes it problematic to spot the difference between fraudsters and authentic callers.  If unsure the advisable thing to do is ask for their phone number and offer to call them back – then check out the phone number provided on their website.
• Never click on links in e-mails that claim to be from your card company, even if it appears to be genuine.  If the email appears believable and is asking you to log in to your account for some reason, then always type the URL manually or by using a bookmark you have previously made – never use the link in the email.
• Contact you card company if you notice that your statements have stopped arriving in the mail
• Most importantly, do not throw out any documentation that contains details of your account numbers, nor any documentation that may contain clues to common security question responses. 

If you need to dispose of such documents you should shred them first, preferably using a Fellowes Particle Cut Shredder as these provide a greater level of security by cutting the document into much small particles instead of strips that could be stuck back together