A worker at HSBC’s Bangalore call centre has been arrested after being caught supplying personal details to fraudsters who went on to steal £230,000 from 16 of the bank’s UK customers.
This is not the first time that personal details of UK bank customers have been illegally obtained. Last year, a reporter from The Sun managed to obtain UK customer bank details from a call centre in India, while recently an Australian TV programme also gained banking customers’ details including birth certificates, driving licences and ATM card numbers.
If you have been a victim of identity theft, it can take up to 300 hours of work and hassle to clear your name and put your credit record straight. In the meantime, you can find it impossible to get a mortgage, loan or credit card. More and more people are going online to monitor their credit report to ensure that the information listed is accurate before applying for further credit.
A recent survey by the Royal Bank of Scotland suggests nearly one in five current account holders never open their bank statements to check their accuracy. A further 23% of people said they only checked their statements occasionally. But at the other end of the scale, one in six people said they kept track of how much money they have in their current account on a daily basis. Fraud experts recommend that current account holders check their finances regularly, at least once a month.
A few simple precautions will help to protect your identity and financial future:
- Never give bank, credit or debit card details, your PIN or passwords to anybody on the internet, in e-mails or during cold calls
- Check your bank statements and credit card statements
- Redirect your post for at least a year after moving home
- Shred or burn your old post, especially anything containing financial information, do not throw it in the rubbish – research by Experian found that almost a tenth of households throw away enough information for a criminal to use a debit or credit card online
- Don't carry important documents such as your passport with you – and never keep your address in your wallet, in case it is stolen
- Choose passwords that will be impossible for others to guess – for example, avoid using your date of birth or your mother’s maiden name – and do not use the same password or PIN for all your accounts
- Check your credit record regularly, especially after moving home
To make sure that you have not become a victim of identity theft, it’s also a good idea to keep regular tabs on your credit report. This is a factual record of your financial history kept by a credit reference agency. This record is consulted by lenders when they are deciding whether to lend you money, offer a mortgage or issue you with a credit card.
An easy way to check your credit report is to sign up for a free 30-day trial of CreditExpert, an online credit monitoring service. This service allows you to check your credit report at any time. You will also be warned by a weekly e-mail or text message when a significant change, such as a new credit check, is registered on your report.
Click now for a free 30-day trial of CreditExpert and to view a free copy of your credit report.
