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Protect against identity theft
Worried about the safety of your
personal data?
It was revealed
this week that the Child Benefit Agency has lost the personal details of every
parent who receives child benefit, including names, addresses, dates of birth,
national insurance numbers, child benefit numbers and bank accounts. As a
result, 25 million people are now vulnerable to identity fraud if the
data on two discs falls into the wrong hands.
They aren't the only ones. In a matter of weeks, data breaches have been
reported by organisations in areas as diverse as insurance and clothing.
If you think you
could be at risk, take these simple precautions as soon as possible:
1. Check your bank statements
carefully. With your
account data and basic personal information, criminals could try to get hold of
your money. If you spot any unfamiliar transactions, tell your bank immediately
and explain the circumstances.
2. Look at your credit report. The information in the Child Benefit
Agency records is enough for a criminal to apply for loans, credit cards and
even mortgages in your name - as well as other forms of credit such as mobile
telephone and catalogue accounts. Your credit report lists all your credit
commitments and recent applications for credit, so you can instantly see if
someone has been trying to use your ID and put a stop to problems before they
can develop.
3. Minimise the information you post on social networking sites.
Organised gangs are now focusing on ID fraud as a profit centre and they know
that many people give away useful snippets that could be passwords or key dates
giving access to your bank and card accounts. Edit out the names of pets,
mother's maiden name, where you went to school and anything else you might use
as a password or PIN.
4. Watch out for hoax calls, letters or emails. Taking advantage of your
distress in the wake of a data breach, criminals may call, email or write
pretending to need further information in order to protect you. In fact, they
hope to rip you off more thoroughly - so don't give away information to people
you do not know. Check with organisations that might have a genuine reason for
contacting you before you part with your data.
5. Ensure that your bank and credit card account passwords do not relate to the
data that could be compromised. Many of us tend to use details such as
children's names and memorable dates as passwords to protect our bank and credit
card accounts. Fraudsters are likely to make a good guess at these passwords
which will give them access to your finances for further theft and much more.
Make sure you update your passwords on a regular basis and use unique words that
do not relate to data that could be compromised in a data breach.
CreditExpert
from Experian offers ID fraud alerts via SMS or email, so you know when your
credit report changes.
Get your free report
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