Elderly couples and pensioners have found themselves at increased risk of identity theft during the past year. As current account fraud rises to the highest levels yet, older individuals who own comfortable homes and have some income in addition to the state pension, have felt the brunt of increasing ID thefts. Within the first six months of this year ID theft among this group climbed 1.8 per cent, compared to the same period in 2014.
The credit checking agency Experian’s demographic profiling has identified this specific social segment as ‘Senior Security’. They now account for one in 20 (4.6 per cent) detected current account frauds in the UK. This compares to 2.8 per cent in 2014 and 1.9 per cent in 2013.
When looking at identity theft across all applications for financial products, the biggest increase has been among extended families from multicultural backgrounds in settled communities. This ‘Urban Cohesion’ segment has seen ID theft rise by 1.3 per cent during the first six months of this year, compared to the same period in 2014. The group is also now fraudsters’ second most targeted segment, accounting for 11.1 per cent of all ID theft victims.
Experian also highlighted a gender imbalance. Men are now victims in two out of three ID thefts (63 per cent) across all financial product applications.
Criminals making bogus current account applications have been targeting men aged between 50 and 59 (up 3.4 per cent) most during the first six months of the year. This age group now accounts for nearly one in five (17.6 per cent) current account ID thefts attempted against men.
Nick Mothershaw, UK&I Director of Identity and Fraud at Experian said: “Fraudsters are widening their net and we are seeing a growing number of cases involving older members of society. Older individuals in this category often have a good credit rating and have lived at the same address for a long time. Individuals need to be careful of websites and emails asking for personal information, such a as confirmation of their date of birth. This information is then used by criminals to apply for new financial products.
“We are also seeing more residents of urban communities falling victims to fraud. One in five people within this community is over 56 years old. It is important that everyone, regardless of age, takes measures to ensure their details remain their own, because fraudsters will easily find those who don’t.”
Young renters are still the main targets for overall ID theft across all financial products, accounting for 18.5 per cent of all fraud.
Advice
1. Always shred or destroy documents that contain personal information before throwing them away.
2. Never respond to cold phone calls or e-mails asking for account details, PINs, passwords or personal information.
3. Don’t give too much away on networking websites. For example, pets’ names or children’s names could be used as passwords.
4. Register to vote at your current address. If you don’t, thieves could use your previous address details to open new credit accounts, and run up debts in your name.
5. Monitor your post regularly so you know when to expect important documents — and when to act if they don’t arrive.
6. Redirect your mail via the Post Office if you move house.
7. Always use secure, unique passwords for as many online accounts as possible, and ideally all of them. At the very least have a unique password for each type of service provider such as financial services, retail services and email.
8. Don’t store account names and passwords on your smartphone, either in email, as a note, or to ‘autocomplete’ when you open a website or app. It will be a goldmine for fraudsters if your device is lost or stolen.
9. Read all bank and card statements regularly to check for suspicious transactions.
10. Check your credit report, because it lists your credit accounts and what you owe, so you can spot applications and spending that are nothing to do with you.
