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Identity fraud risk assessment tool

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by Sarah Orrill

28/10/11 in Identity Fraud/Theft |

Last week was the seventh National Identity Fraud Prevention Week also known as (NIDFPW) aimed at preventing identity theft and fraud through raising awareness of the topic. Every year for the last seven years the National Identity Fraud Prevention Week has integrated people from both the public and the private sector to bring together a wide range of knowledge and experience in relation to preventing and combating identity fraud. Identity fraud is one of the UK’s fastest growing crimes and affects both individuals and businesses alike.

Despite it being a quite well known subject many people and business don’t take the appropriate steps to prevent or combat identity theft that could be a serious risk. Recent research carried out by the CIFAS (the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service) showed that 7% of the UK population, just over four million people have been victims of identity fraud with the average cost to each victim at £1,190 equating to over £47 Million of identity fraud cost. The number of reported cases in the UK continues to grow year on year with over 80,000 reported in 2011 so far. Despite this rise in risk research by CIFAS suggests that 25% of people are still not taking the simple yet key precautions such as shredding bills and bank statements that can help prevent any issues with identity fraud.

To discover how at risk you are from Identity Fraud you can use CPP’s risk assessment tool for free online today. This tool will allow you to enter your current situation though a number of simple questions and give you expert advice as to whether you could be at risk from identity fraud and what measures you can take to protect yourself.

CPP also have a great check list of tips that you can use to assess your own situation and stop yourself from being at risk, some of these tips are as follows:

  • Don’t let your debit/credit cards out of sight.
  • Make sure you shred any discarded bills, statements, wage slips or even junk mail that may contain your names and address.
  • Opt out of having your details available on the edited electoral roll. - Avoid carrying out transactions on public or shared computers. 

For the full list of recommendations and tips please visit our fraud advice page.

Don’t think that preventing identity fraud is as simple as shredding your letters, over 88% of people share valuable information on social networking sites that could be used to commit identity fraud such as address, date of birth and more. To make ensure that you are fully protected you need to keep up to date with National Fraud Prevention website.

Comments

Xfire300 08/11/11

That was pretty great article. Thanks for sharing it…

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x8notes 10/11/11

Pretty nice article. Worth reading!

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