Fighting Identity Theft
10 simple ways to keep your financial identity safe
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the UK, with an estimated 1 in 4 people either being a victim or knowing a victim, and a total of over £1.3bn involved every year. The effects of fraud can be serious and can take months or even years to put right.
There are however some simple steps you can take to help prevent I.D. theft and the financial damage it can cause.
Ways to keep your financial details private:
1: Shred or burn paid bills and other documents which you don't need to keep. Never simply throw them away, as a favourite method of identity theft starts with sifting through household waste to find these documents. Even till receipts can be useful to a fraudster, not to mention credit card statements, so be scrupulous about destroying or properly storing all your personal documents, bills and receipts.
2: Keep other documents safe and secure, and out of sight of visitors to your home.
3: Keep banks and other companies informed when you move home, so that bills and statements aren't sent to your old address, where they could be opened by fraudsters.
4: Cancel any unused bank or credit card accounts, rather than letting them go dormant, so that you don't have to remember to keep your address details up to date.
5: Make sure you keep track of your credit, debit and ATM cards and cancel them immediately if they are lost or stolen.
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