Do you live in London?

Then according to a former vice president of Mastercard you are more likely to suffer from identity fraud than anywhere else in the UK. The full article can be found over at SC Magazine. The ex vp was head of their security and risk departments so should know of what he speaks. He lists the top 20 risk areas with only one being outside London and then not by much.

So is ID theft a problem? Well certainly if it happens to you it is but the better question might be is it a widespread problem or how likely is it to happen to me?

Certainly the issue is on the rise and since CIFAS started keeping figures (1999) it has gone from a reported 9,000 cases in the UK to a peak in 2006 of 80,000 an a marginal drop off last year to 77,500. Out of a population of 60 Million (give or take) it isn’t a huge number. However, with the push towards everybody doing everything digitally my guess is that this will become a much more common thing.

So is there anything we can do to prevent it?

Reading up on the subject matter will help us to be aware of the means and methods of those that attempt to defraud us. It’ll perhaps help us not to be as casual with handing over our credit cards to pay for meals. But rather than lecturing you, go read the “How ID Theft Occurs” page over at the appropriately named Stop ID Fraud site. If you prefer your advice with political bias then pop on over to Identity Theft and read their “Protect Yourself” advice.

I don’t apologise for the British bias in the above articles, but the advice is valid wherever you are just substitute passport for identity document or similar. If you prefer a more international flavour then of course you could always stop by wikipedia and read their variant. Though it doesn’t really matter what your nationality is, this is a global problem that is only going to get worse until we, the potential victims, wise up and make sure we are ready for the brave new world we all face.