London is Identity Fraud Hotspot

London is the UK’s identity fraud hot spot, with a quarter of all identity fraud cases taking place in the capital last year. Londoners are also twice as likely to become victims of this crime than in the average UK region. More than one in five identity fraud cases took place in the South East and the North West is identified to be the UK’s third identity fraud hot spot, with one in ten victims living in the region. Residents in these regions are also more likely to be victims of identity fraud than in any other region of the UK.

Consumers are safest in Northern Ireland, where just 1% of all identity fraud cases took place, just over a third of the UK regional average. The South West and Scotland are also the second and third safest spots in the UK.

Shoppers nationwide should be on their guard as research shows that no part of the country is safe. Consumers are also warned that identity fraudsters may come in a variety of guises. They may raid your dustbin to steal the personal information you throw away or they may trap you into giving your details on the internet or on the phone; with online shopping increasing by 78% in the last year it’s never been more important to protect your identity from fraud when shopping on the Internet.

Jill Stevens, director of consumer affairs at Experian, comments: “Although the end loser is usually the defrauded bank, without help it can take you up to 400 hours to unravel the muddle left by a fraudster who has used your good credit history. And all the time his debts are on your credit record you probably won’t be able to get credit yourself. As the average spend by an identity fraudster is £1,000 per account, it really is worth making sure this doesn’t happen to you” .

Identity fraud is one of the UK’s fastest growing crimes, affecting in excess of 100,000 people per year, costing the UK £1.3 billion each year. Most alarmingly, it takes, on average, 18 months for victims of identity fraud to realise that they have been targeted.

The only way to ensure that you haven't been a victim of identity fraud is to regularly check your credit report, or sign up to a credit monitoring service that will update you as and when any changes occur on your credit file.

Click here to sign up for the CreditExpert Monitoring Service where you will receive a 30-day free trial to their credit monitoring in addition to receiving a copy of your credit report.

Alternatively, you can click this link to get unlimited access to your credit information from all 3 credit reference agencies (Callcredit, Equifax & Experian) at Checkmyfile.com.

If you have any questions regarding identity fraud protection, feel free to email us at: info@thecreditagency.co.uk