How careful are you with personal and financial details? That’s the question posed by the City of London Police and others in a cyber awareness campaign.
A recent YouGov survey commissioned by the credit checking agency Equifax found that UK people are failing to take basic steps like protecting passwords or installing anti-virus software to protect their identities from criminals. Identity fraud has been growing steadily over the past ten years according to the official 2016 Annual Fraud Indicator and it is estimated that the cost of identity fraud to the UK is £5.4billion.
Identity fraud now represents over half of all fraud recorded by Cifas members, with nine out of 10 perpetrated online. In 2016, 172,919 people reported identity fraud to the fraud prevention trade body Cifas. The recent survey commissioned by Equifax has helped to reveal some of the public’s attitudes towards protecting their identity. The survey found:
•55pc of people surveyed access public Wi-Fi that is not password protected;
•40pc of people do not have antivirus software installed on their devices;
•27pc of people use the same password for multiple accounts;
•32pc admit that they are at risk to identity fraud because of their behaviour; and
•31pc of people think the over 60s are the most at risk to fraud.
This shows that some UK citizens are still leaving their (virtual) doors open to identity fraudsters, say the authorities. The #AreYouOneofThem campaign is urging people to be more vigilant to help protect themselves from fraudsters.
City of London Police, Commander Dave Clark, National Police Coordinator for Economic Crime said: “The recent survey results have highlighted that we need to do more to protect ourselves from fraudsters. There is a common misconception that only old people fall victim to fraud but reports show that every age and demographic is affected. There is no doubt that identity fraud is a growing problem and this is why we have launched our #AreYouOneofThem campaign. We want to draw people’s attention to identity fraud and to highlight the risks they face when sharing details online.
“Throughout the week we are urging people to think about their online behaviour and look at our advice to find out what they can do to protect themselves from identity fraud.”
Individuals or businesses who have fallen victim to identity fraud should report to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk.
Dave Clark was among the speakers at the SDW 2017 (Security Document World) conference at the QE2 Centre, Westminster, yesterday. More in the August 2017 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
Picture by Mark Rowe; London graffiti.
