Identity Theft Check

The British Government has made numerous noises about the importance of tackling the growing problem of ID fraud that has been brought about by our IT culture.

ID fraud affects private individuals, businesses, multinational companies and even government agencies, and it has been implicated in serious crimes including the illegal drugs trade and human trafficking, so there is no understatement of the seriousness of this sort of crime.

A study carried out by the British Cabinet Office in 2002 found that crimes that had been facilitated or exacerbated by identity fraud costs the UK as much as £1.3 billion per year, which is a considerable sum by any measure.

In 2006 the Home Office Identity Fraud Steering Committee updated the findings of the Cabinet Office’s report in order to better establish any trends or changes in the overall cost of ID fraud in the years since the report was made.

The estimate they came up with shows ID fraud costing the British economy as much as £1.7 billion. One can only imagine how much it has gone up since 2006. Even so, these are just estimates of the problem, although they are ‘best’ estimates.

Click here for more details on this report with a detailed breakdown of the findings.