You may have taken all required steps possible to protect fraud, from bank phone call, knocks at the door, postal requests, e mails and other scamming formats.
Have you protected YOU as a private entity?
Can your identity be cloned, and if so, how easy is it to do from the private and personal information required?
Do you shred anything with your name, address, any bank statement details, anything with your national Insurance details, any printed e mails with links to passwords, any pension information or payments if applicalbe to you, anything with any type of account numbers on them, utility bills with any personal information printed, in fact… anything that a criminal can build up a piece by piece stack of information on YOU??
Even locally, we hear of dustbin raiders and recycling bin raiders. thay are looking for any family details, personal details, bank details, discarded old bank cards, anything with YOUR personal information included.
These little snippets are often not in themselves enough to gain a clone identity, but if they are all added together, they can be convincing enough for someone to pretend to be you for criminal means.
You will only know that a criminal has been successful when an unexpected bill or charge appears, that you have no idea of it’s origin, and obviously have not agreed to sanction, but everything seems to be in your name.
How to stop it ! – Really, you have to be really vigilant in your thrown wastes, so shred, or burn anything that could have any small snippet of personal information that you do not require to keep safely.
Identity fraud costs people millions of pounds every year – do not become their next victim !