Identity Theft Check

The use of PIN numbers, rather than a simple signature for credit and debit cards, has made identity theft slightly more difficult. It’s much harder for a criminal to guess your PIN number than forge your signature.

However, you do have to take steps to protect your PIN if you want to keep the criminals at bay.

Firstly, never write your PIN numbers down- at least not in a visible or decipherable way. And keeping your PIN numbers in the same place as your cards is a major no no- don’t even consider doing it!!!!

Also, when entering your PIN number, ensure that nobody else can see the numbers that you are entering- particularly if there is someone standing particularly close to you.

Keeping your PIN numbers safe means the chances of identity theft are lessened.

With Christmas fast approaching, many will now be in the middle of the hectic panic that is Christmas shopping. However whether you are shopping online or visiting your local high street, be sure to remain extra vigilant against the possibility of identity theft.

Below are just a couple of the steps you can take to avoid identity theft:

Shred and destroy unwanted documents
Unfortunately just throwing them in the bin is no longer enough, as the type of people who want to steal your identity will have no qualms in routing through your rubbish! Anything with personal details printed on them, even if you consider it just junk mail, should ideally be properly shredded before throwing away.

Immediately report lost or stolen cards
If you have lost your credit / debit cards or even had it stolen, be sure to ring your bank and have them cancelled immediately. Firstly, criminals will likely try to empty the account as quickly as possible so reporting it as lost/stolen will immediately clarify who has done the spending. Also reporting the card early will make it much harder for criminals to get away with cloning the card for the purpose of identity theft.

CETA, the 4,000 strong network of insurance intermediaries, is urging its brokers to promote identity theft insurance.

The risk of this type of fraud is increasing for UK consumers; losses from plastic cards used for Internet, telephone and mail purchases totalled £290.5 million in 2007, although CETA believes the figure could be much higher.

While the crime is mainly associated with credit card fraud, identities are also being stolen to open bank accounts, divert mail and apply for social benefits and mortgages.

According to the network’s managing director, David Quick, identity theft insurance is relatively cheap and can provide invaluable practical assistance to victims.

Mr Quick is concerned that many organisations do not appear to look after customers’ records well and that as criminals become more resourceful, consumers are beginning to live in fear of identity fraud.

The Financial Services Authority has recently completed a survey of the data security systems of 39 firms in the financial services sector and has gone on to warn that businesses must do more to protect customers’ personal data.

The Government has established a new Home Office agency called the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), which will be responsible for issuing all British ID cards. This new agency also incorporates all the functions of the former UK Passport Service, bringing all the expertise in combating identity crime that this former agency has into the new agency.

It will of course take a few years for the new ID scheme to become fully operational and for all eligible UK citizens and residents to be enrolled on it. The introduction of biometric identification for foreign nationals comes into effect this year (2008) and the first ID cards issued to British citizens in will be sometimes in 2009, although the dates have not yet been finalised.

As mentioned in the previous article, in the initial stages of the scheme all British citizens who apply will be issued with an ID card when they first apply for an adult passport or renew an existing passport, but after that point, structures will come into place to make them available without a passport (called a stand-alone ID card).

In time it is likely that owning an ID card will become compulsory but the government has not yet made any decisions on when this might be just yet. It will probably happen after Parliament has become confident that the ID cards work in the ways that they are intended to before any moves are taken to make them wholly compulsory, but of course this will require a full and independent evaluation of the introductory phase and a debate in Parliament.

Whatever the case, the government has said it will not It will not compulsory to carry ID cards at all times.

Note that no-one will be able to apply for an ID card until 2009.  Also, until January 1st 2010, British citizens will be given an option to choose not to be issued with an ID card when ordering a new passport, (although their details will be entered on the National Identity Register).

Once all the relevant structures are in place and become fully operational, ID cards will be issued as stand-alone documents alongside existing ‘designated documents’ such as passports and visas – although this will not be the only means to get them.

For any foreign national living within the UK, the identity card will also act as a residence permit, residence card and/or registration certificate and will be linked to the National Identity Register (NIR) in the same way as all other British ID cards will be.

As touched upon in the previous article, the scheme will be made secure by the fact that all ID cards will not rely solely on the information printed on the card to prove who you are. The details on your ID card will be checked and confirmed through the Identity Verification Service (IVS) and against your record on the NIR. A fake ID card would be pretty useless if it did not a match your record on the NIR, and faking details that appear on the NIR would be almost impossible without using exceptional sophisticated means..

The government has sought to assure the British population that the whole scheme will not be an invasion of our privacy. The NIR will only hold details of basic Person-Identifying Information (PII) that is already held by various government departments, along with certain other elements of biometric information (like fingerprints and retina scans), and access to this information is very strictly limited by the Identity Cards Act of 2006.

Information will only be held for the purposes of proving identity and nothing else. No sensitive information like medical records will be held, although there will possibly be details of criminal records for certain crimes being held on the database. It remains to be seen what will eventually be included.

Whatever the case, we will all have the right to see what information about us is held on the NIR database.

The utility of the British ID card programme is predicated wholly upon the success and efficiency of brand spanking new the National Identity Register (NIR) – started just this year (2008).

The system has been described by Government as being easy-to-use and extremely secure, containing personal identification for adults living in the UK – adults, in this case, being anyone over the age of 16 years.

The NIR scheme will be run by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). The Government predicts that it will take several years yet for the NIR to become fully operational with everyone registered on and with it. Although this year saw the first enrolments of foreign nationals into the scheme, ID cards for British citizens are not expected to be available for issue in the UK before 2009.

The initial stages of the ID card programme will see them being issued to British citizens who apply for passports, either for a first time or to renew and old one, although they will eventually be available to people who do not want passports as well.

 For those who are resident within the UK but who are not British citizens, all residency permits, registration certificates or residency cards will take the form of an ID card instead.

The NIR scheme will eventually become compulsory, although the exact timescale of this has not been ironed out yet. Once it does become compulsory, all British citizens over the age of 16 will be required to have an ID card by law, although we are told that it will not be compulsory to carry it around with us at all times.

In December 2005 representatives from a range of government departments and all the police forces in England and Wales were brought together into a network of Single Points of Contact (SPOC) for detecting and prosecuting identity related crimes in the UK.

Each of these individual ‘SPOCs’ act a focal points within the organisations they work within for issues dealing with identity fraud. So, as an example, at any point a police force could contact a SPOC at the Immigration Office or even the Security Service (MI5) to request information regarding an issue relating to a specific instance of ID.

The role of ‘SPOCs’ is also to monitor particular cases of ID crime from start to finish and to volunteer any information to other agencies that they may think relevant to any particular investigation, even if they have not been asked for that information.

Indeed the Home Office, the Identity and Passport Service and the DVLA have worked with APACS, FLA and CIFAS to produce ‘Identity Fraud - The UK Manual’, which is designed to improve the awareness and training of people within financial institutions in order to combat ID fraud at the ‘cutting edge’ (so the checking and verifying potential customers’ PII)

All of the above, when put together, means that steps have been taken to link up thinking and better co-ordinate authorities on the matter of ID crime as well create joined up, and therefore more effective, counter measures to combat it.

As discussed in previous articles, it is very important that you protect any PII that may allow criminals to defraud you or an institution in your name. As such, always report any lost or stolen passports, driving licences, credit cards, debit cards, cheque-books, or anything else as soon as you become aware that they are missing.

The sooner you report them missing the less likely it is that a criminal will be able to use them undetected.

If you suspect that your mail is being stolen, or if you have started receiving mail that is not your own through a fraudulent mail redirection service, notify the Royal Mail immediately. They have their own internal investigations unit who are very capable and able to help.

If you are definitely a victim of identity fraud but still posses your credit card (as an example), you should not have to pay anything back for things bought without your explicit consent by third parties – although there are often terms and conditions that you should be familiar with from the financial institution in question. Be sure to check their blurb thoroughly.

If you have actually lost your credit or debit cards, or if they have been stolen, you usually will not have to pay for anything unless you are the fraudster yourself (which we are assuming you won’t be!) or unless you can be shown to have acted negligently yourself, like by keeping your PIN attached to your cash-card or somesuch – never a good idea…!