Money News
New data out from CIFAS - The UK's Fraud Prevention Service - continues to give cause for concern.
Comparing the first half of 2007 with the same period in 2006, CIFAS members have seen a sharp rise in most types of financial fraud. For example, application fraud (where fraudsters tell lies on application forms in order to obtain credit, insurance or other products) increased by nearly 19%, with 37,357 cases detected and filed.
Meanwhile, the scale of Facility Takeover and Asset Conversion cases, though smaller, has seen steep increases since H1 2006, of almost 45% and 31% respectively.
Elsewhere, false insurance claims also showed an increase during the period of more than 10%, while Identity Fraud stabilised but is still giving cause for concern The most surprising statistic during this period is that identity fraud overall has stabilised when compared with the same period in 2006. That said, the number of cases identified, 39,261, is still worryingly high, with the number of victims increasing from 32,039 to 33,411.
In addition, the swing towards Current Address Identity Fraud - noticed during Q1 2007 - has been sustained, and now represents 35% of identity fraud cases, compared with 25% during the same period in 2006. Previous Address Identity Fraud now accounts for only 25% of identity fraud cases, compared with 35% during the same period last year.
Current Address Fraud is a type of identity fraud where the victim lives at the same address as the current address given on the fraudulent application. The fraudster is often resident at the same property as the victim.
In such cases, the fraudster applies for, and uses, products in the name of the victim whose property they share.
The fraudster will generally have access to, or can intercept, the victims post (e.g. in flats where individuals share a communal mailbox with shared access). Other contributory factors to current address fraud can include abuse of Companies House data, data breaches, fraudulent mail redirections and bin raiding.
Previous Address Fraud is where the fraudster steals another person's identity and falsely claims that the victim has recently changed address.
Due to the short time at the alleged new address, any credit reference agency checks are performed primarily against the previous address (where, in reality, the victim is still resident).
In such circumstances, the fraudster will usually apply for new products in the name of the victim and will undertake facility takeover fraud from the new address.
26 July 2007 © Moneyextra.com
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