Discover What Happens If You Become A Victim Of Id Fraud?

Having our personal information stolen by Id fraudsters is higher than most of us would believe. These criminals use the stolen information to obtain credit cards, personal loans and finance agreements in our names that we are responsible for. Id fraud is on the increase and the banks and finance institutions do not want to acknowledge the full extent of the problem. Read on to find out more.....

And if you're thinking of packing your bags and moving overseas to escape the crooks, forget it - Money Saving Expert found that 42 per cent of fraud took place out of the UK.

So you could become the latest ID fraud vitim? More importantly, what can you do to prevent it?

What's the point of ID fraud?

ID fraud is a very lucrative business. If criminals can get hold of enough of your personal data, they can clean out your existing accounts and set up new ones, running up debts in your name and trashing your credit rating in the process.

How do they do it?

New scams are always emerging but here are some of the most common:

• Stealing your handbag or wallet to get hold of key information such as your full name, address, date of birth, perhaps a cheque book and a fistful of cards

• Raiding your rubbish bin in the hope that you could have thrown away bank, credit card or loan statements

• Phishing - sending you an e-mail purporting to come from a bank, building society, lottery company or someone with a lot of money to give away and asking you to enter full personal and account data in order to reset your security measures/claim a prize/whatever they've thought up this week

• Snooping on social networks, looking for basic personal information plus names and dates - children, pets, anniversaries - that might be used as passwords or PINs

• Copying your details from a card or ID when you use them legitimately in a shop or other outlet

When will I know I have been ripped off?The first you know anything is when you get a welcome letter from a credit card account you've never heard of, you may receive notification of a debt you don't recognise or get turned down for credit unexpectedly. Your post might not turn up because it's been intercepted or redirected. You may simply discover an unfamiliar transaction on your bank or card statement.

The most common way to confirm ID fraud, according to the 2009 Victims of Fraud report from Experian credit report, is by checking your online credit report. Your experian credit report lists your loan, credit card and bank accounts and details of your repayment history. This makes it easy to spot anything unfamiliar. Unfortunately, you could be in big trouble by the time you get this far - Experian's Victims of Fraud support service discovered that, on average, the people it helped last year took 416 days to discover what was going on.

Can you get my money back?

Having behaved responsibly, you should. That means you haven't shared your PINs and passwords, given your card or cheque book to someone and have told the relevant organisation as soon as you suspect something's wrong - for example, if you've lost your wallet or things have gone missing in a burglary. The terms and conditions of any account may specify a small excess that you have to pay before they step in. The Infoseceurity survey found that 91 per cent of people who lost more than £5,000 got all their money back, while only 41 per cent of people who lost less than £100 were fully compensated - although this may have something to do with the persistence of the people involved.

What if new accounts have been set up in my name?You should get in touch with the relevant lenders immediately their contact details are on your credit report - and inform them what's happened. You'll need to provide proof. Experian's Victims of Fraud service may be able to help you with this. Your aim should be to get the accounts cancelled and removed from your credit report - while they're still there, you may find it difficult to obtain a new credit card, personal loan or bank current account, as lenders will see the chaos caused by the fraudster and may believe that you're irresponsible and a bad risk.

How can I avoid becoming a victim?

Take precautions about your personal information daily. The Home Office recommends regular checks on your credit report as a good protection against ID fraud - the sooner you learn to spot a problem, the easier it will be to resolve.

Take the following steps:

• Shredding statements and other sensitive documents before binning them.

• Checking your statements carefully every month and always query unfamiliar entries.

• Reduce the amount of information your provide on Social networks to your name only.

• Always delete unsolicited e-mails, never clicking through to linked websites and ignoring cold callers who ask for personal data.

• Never sharing your PINs, passwords, cards or other account information.

• Don't allow anyone to take your debit card or credit card out of your sight in shops, restaurants or hotels in case it's being cloned in a back room.