ID theft could be easier than burglary

June, 13, 2008

It may well be easier for thieves to steal a person's identity than to break into their home to rob their belongings, a sector commentator suggests.

Neil Munroe, external affair director at Equifax, explains that it takes a great deal of risk and effort to force entry into someone's property to obtain their valuables.

In comparison, it is relatively simple to send a person an email and convince them to surrender their bank details so that their savings accounts can be accessed.

Free loan quote and/or advice

He adds: "In this day and age we are all a lot more credit active and a lot more active on the web and fraudsters have realised that there is a lot of information around that they could get from people that they may not have been able to get ten years ago."

Meanwhile, the UK's fraud prevention service CIFAS states that there were 77,500 reported instances of identity theft over the course of 2007.

Saving Money ... Around the Home