- 30
- Oct
National Identity Fraud Awareness Week has brought many fraud crimes to public light. Credit information companies like Experian claims that more needs to be done. The crime of identity fraud is not reported in 82 percent of all cases. Those cases that are reported, only seven per cent leads to a prosecution. Twenty nine per cent of all cases are never pursued by the police. All these cases leave the responsibility for the debt in the victim’s hands.
The most common scheme is the fraudulent use of the victim’s present or previous address. The victim’s details are used by someone living at the same address or the fraudster places a postal redirect on the address, or the fraudster uses the victim’s name and address to take advantage of any credit history not yet transferred to a new address.
The victim remains unaware because they never see the bills. The industry is changing. Much of the financial loss due to identity fraud is carried by the companies involved. However, there are still too many cases where the consumer cannot prove fraud, and are forced to pay the loan. Most consumers are unaware that they are hit with identity fraud until they are denied a loan or mortgage.
Hardest hit organisations are mail order companies. More than 60 per cent of all fraudulent accounts during 2005/6 were mail order accounts. However, the biggest losers were credit and store card issuers. They suffered 35 per cent of all fraud losses during this year.
Consumers are warned to cancel all old credit accounts. Many adults believe that these accounts are cancelled after a certain length of inactivity, this is not true. Not cancelling the account can result in mail being sent to an old address and used by a fraudster. Consumers must become aware of the fact that they are ultimately responsible for their own consumer credit information and credit ratings.
