Identity theft

The details of 25 million child benefit claimants has, possibly,  been lost whilst on transit between government departments. There has been a major storm in the press and in parliament with calls for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to resign.

The government have made reassuring noises about the risk to people having money taken out of their bank accounts if these details end up in the hands of criminals.

In my view the government have cynically focused on bank accounts because they are mostly safe from having money withdrawn by fraudsters. You do need a pin number to use a cash machine and you also need a credit card programmed with your bank details.

The real danger to people is identity theft. There is enough information on these missing disks to make it very much simpler to take over the identity of people.

A victim could find themselves with huge bills, a ruined credit status, all bank accounts and credit cards stopped, speeding and parking tickets, etc.

Of course you can sort it out, that is if you can prove that none of the bills are actually yours. Of course it could take years!

You can help yourself if you realise that something is wrong as early as possible. For example, if you get any mail regarding financial contracts that you have made when you know that you haven’t must be responded to as quickly as possible. Check upon anything unusual. Check you bank account regularly, query unusual payments. Check your credit card account if you use it and it is not accepted. Check your credit status with one of the credit agencies, it will cost a few pounds but will show if credit cheques are being made by other people.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer pledged that ‘no one would lose out’ if the data on the missing disks is used to defraud people. I suspect that he could not afford to honour that pledge if there is widespread fraud as a result of these disks getting into the hands of professional criminals.

Tags: account, accounts, bank, card, cards, credit, identity, theft