Article 17 - Identity Fraud

Identity Fraud

Personal information has been generally available to anyone for many years. One has only to consider documents such as the telephone directory and the electoral roll which have long been in the public domain and have been used to trace people.

What has changed in the last few years is the availability of this information on the Internet and the ability of computers to search for and find the information at high speed. It is no longer necessary to phone directory enquiries to obtain details of people outside the area covered by your local telephone directory – the information is simply available on-line. Some examples of the available information are given here.

192.com

This website uses information obtained from the telephone directory and the electoral roll and makes this information available to the person making the enquiry. The information made available includes address, stated occupation and phone number. You can opt out of this facility by going ex-directory and opting not to have your electoral roll details made public. There is also a form which can be down loaded from this web site should you want your details removed from the site.

Friends Reunited

This web site allows you to track down old school friends and work colleagues. To this end, the site includes a powerful search engine and the personal details held include details of schools. The name of your first school is one of the security questions used by banks and the like as one of their security questions. Here again, it is possible to have your details removed from this site.

Google

Try typing your name into Google, and you may well find yourself listed. The more precise you can be in the search, the more likely it is that you will be found. The on-line archives used by Google (and other search engines) include the archives of regional and local newspapers and information held by local authorities.

Add to this the links to genealogy sites where details such as your mother’s maiden name are available, and you have the answer to another standard security question.

Companies House

The names and addresses of all company directors are held at www.companieshouse.gov.uk. These details are removed only in very exceptional circumstances.

What is the point of all this? It is certainly not my intention to tell you not to use these services. Basically, it is a case of being careful in the use of personal information for security questions. By using a non standard spelling for the answers to these questions, you can make the life of the fraudsters more difficult. For example, say “weetley” as the school here rather than “Wheatley” or “North Wheatley”. The down side of such scheming is that you have to remember the exact answers you have provided.

In any case, forewarned is forearmed, so they say….

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