Identity Theft

Posted on 3 Jan 2006 at 16:59

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How do they do it?

In order to protect yourself you need to know how the criminals steal your information. Here are the most common ways for people to gain information and assume alternative identities.

Robbing the dead Spies, terrorists and other criminals have been stealing identities to use for cover for years. In his 1972 novel The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth described how simple it was to obtain a fake passport using the details of a dead person. The assassin in the book searched a graveyard for a headstone of a child with whom he shared a similar year of birth. He then applied for a birth certificate in that child's name and used that to obtain a passport.

In November 2005 Christopher Edward Buckingham, who also claimed to be the Earl of Buckingham, was found to have been living a lie for 22 years, having used the 'Jackal' technique of obtaining a birth certificate of a dead child. He was sentenced to 21 months in jail for obtaining a passport by deception. A routine check of passport records found that his identity conflicted with a death certificate.

The loophole that allows this is still open, although a planned computerised system for recording births and deaths will help prevent people stealing the identities of the dead in the future. Frederick Forsyth raised the issue again in 2003, and the Office of National Statistics confirmed to us that, two years on, the loophole still exists. It has been over 30 years since Forsyth first publicised the problem. A computerised system aimed at solving it is still in development.

Mail theft If you have ever lived in a shared house or in flats where post is stored communally, you'll appreciate how easy it is to obtain other people's mail. That means access to their utility bills, credit card and bank account statements and other sensitive documents.

A dishonest person living with or near you can intercept your mail and make applications for further services using your details. If successful, they can steal the responses sent by the new companies. Eventually they could change your customer details so that your mail is sent to a different address.

Some fraudsters go one step further by forwarding all their victims' mail to a different address. Despite documented cases where this has happened, the Royal Mail told us that "ID is required to set up a redirection. When a redirection is applied for, or if any changes are made to a redirection, Royal Mail notifies the occupant of the address from which the mail is to be redirected."

Of course, if a fraudster already has your ID they can start a redirection themselves. If they also have access to your mail, they can prevent you receiving notification.

Mail theft is certainly easier if the thieves have access to your current or previous address. If you don't use mail redirection when you move, credit card offers and personal mail may fall into the hands of scammers. In one case documented by CIFAS, a couple moved house and later discovered that the new occupants had re-registered them on the Electoral Register and applied for a credit card. They ran up a bill of £2,500, which was discovered only when the victims applied for a card themselves and were declined.

Lottery wins and other scams If someone contacts you with the good news that you've won a lottery that you don't remember entering, or that you're the beneficiary of some bonds, be suspicious. If you are then asked to supply personal details, such as your date of birth and mother's maiden name, you can be sure it's a scam designed to steal your identity.