Identity fraud fears heightened by HMRC lapse

The subject of the HMRC lapse in allowing 25 million records containing peoples NI numbers and bank account details etc to go missing is already getting blanket coverage elsewhere in the press, so i won’t repeat what’s been written.

This has put a lot of people at risk of having their identities stolen by fraudsters, so let’s all hope the missing discs don’t end up in the wrong hands. Enough information is contained on those discs for criminals to set up credit accounts in the names of innocent victims with unsuspecting companies.So the advice from Government  and elsewhere is absolutely right- keep a close check on your bank account. Watch out too for attempts by pfishers to obtain other personal information from you by e-mail. Pfishers are fraudsters who pretend to be your building society or bank for instance , and using data that they have gleaned about you, try to obtain even more sensitive data from you so that they can sting you.

It’s hard enough nowadays to protect yourself against all types of fraud, where criminals use techniques beyond a lot of ordinary people’s comprehension. That’s why for people like me in the business of protecting customers from fraud, the HMRC news is extremely frustrating and annoying. I’m not surprised heads had to roll for this one.