A credit reference agency has warned Britons to protect their banking and credit card details in order to prevent identity (ID) theft.
Callcredit says four steps are all it takes to prevent fraudsters from accessing personal details and using it for theft.
The agency advises banking customers to shred personal documents and check their credit file on a regular basis.
Banking customers should use different passwords for their various financial accounts, Callcredit says, in addition to cancelling credit facilities that they don't use.
However, research by the agency found that half of banking customers have never checked their credit files.
A quarter fail to shred their financial documents and a third use the same password or personal identification number (pin) more than once.
Another one in four are signed up for credit facilities that they haven't used for over 12 months, according to Callcredit.
ID theft is one of the fastest growing types of fraud in the UK, but people still fail to take the necessary steps to protect themselves, says Alison Nicholson, MyCallcredit director.
"Some of the findings are quite alarming – Yorkshire folk are the most careless with their passwords and pins while Lancastrians are the most likely to have credit facilities they don't use," Ms Nicholson adds.
In a bid to help banking customers protect themselves against ID fraud, Callcredit is offering a free month's trial of the MyCallcredit e-alert credit monitoring service, which gives banking customers an early warning of potential identity theft.
Banking customers warned over ID theft
Banking customers warned over ID theft
Wed, 28 Dec 2005
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