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Identity theft soared by 20% during 2009
as fraudsters increasingly targeted less well-off consumers, a report has claimed.
Information services group Experian said it handled more than 5,000 cases where people had had their identities stolen during the year, nearly a fifth more than in 2008.
It warned that numbers looked set to continue rising this year, as 72% of all identity theft attempts had taken place during the second half of last year.
The group said analysis of information collected through its National Hunter fraud data sharing scheme showed that wealthy people continued to be at the greatest risk of having their identity stolen, with company directors and business owners most likely to be victims.
But it warned that there was a growing trend among fraudsters to target mass-market victims, with criminals carrying out a high volume of low-value frauds on people whose identities were easier to steal, rather than focusing on high net worth individuals. As a result, it said young couples, single parents and people who lived in shared rented accommodation were now at a high risk of being victims of fraud.
The trend has led to areas with a high proportion of new-build properties that are rented out becoming identity fraud hotspots, such as Salford’s Quays development, Manchester’s Liverpool Street and Cardiff’s dockside regeneration area.
Experian also reported a rise in so-called first party fraud, under which individuals lie on application forms to try to obtain financial products they would not otherwise qualify for. Going forward the group expects insurance fraud to rise to £2.5 billion, while mortgage fraud could total £1.2 billion, due to the ongoing shortage of sub-prime and self-certification mortgages.
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