Identity Theft

I think my identity has been stolen – what do I do?

Contact your banks and credit card companies immediately.

Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.

Report to your local police

Or the police in the community where the identity theft took place. Get a copy of the report or at the very least, the number of the report, to submit to your creditors and others that may require proof of the crime.

Report all lost or stolen documents

(passports, driving licences, credit cards, chequebooks, etc).

Notify Royal Mail

If you suspect mail theft or that a mail redirection has been fraudulently set up on your address – they have an investigations unit who will be able to help.

Consider registering with the CIFAS Protective Registration Service

CIFAS Protective Registration may be placed by individuals against their own address when they have good reason to believe it may be used by a fraudster, for example, when a passport has been stolen. For a full explanation of the CIFAS Protective Registration Service, go to CIFAS and follow the link to Protective Registration. Alternatively you can phone 0870 010 2091 (Mon-Fri 8am-9pm, Sat 9am-5pm)

There are no guarantees about avoiding identity theft, there are steps you can take to minimise your risk and minimise the damage if a problem occurs:

Identity theft is a serious crime. How does it happen?

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. While you can't entirely control whether you will become a victim, there are steps you can take to minimise your risk.

The Internet and Identity Theft

You may be careful about locking your doors and windows, and keeping your personal papers in a secure place. Depending on what you use your personal computer for, an identity thief may not need to set foot in your house to steal your personal information.

Am I at risk?

The answer is YES if you store any of these on your computer:
• Social Security number
• financial records
• tax returns
• birth date
• bank account numbers

What is…?

Phishing is the name given to the practice of sending emails purporting to come from a genuine company operating on the Internet...

Trojans take their name from the term 'Trojan Horse' and are a type of computer virus which can be installed on your computer without you realising...

'Money mules' or 'money transfer agents' launder funds obtained as a result of phishing and trojan scams...

How can I keep my information safe?

Virus protection software should be updated regularly, and patches for your operating system and other software programs should be installed to protect against intrusions and infections that can lead to the compromise of your computer files or passwords. Ideally, virus protection software should be set to automatically update each week. The Windows XP operating system also can be set to automatically check for patches and download them to your computer. Do not open files sent to you by strangers, or click on hyperlinks or download programs from people you don't know. Be careful about using file-sharing programs. Opening a file could expose your system to a computer virus or a program known as "spyware," which could capture your passwords or any other information as you type it into your keyboard.