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How well protected are you and your organisation against identity fraud?
There is growing evidence that identity fraud is increasing. Fraudsters obtain more than £1,000 from every identity they steal, official figures suggest. They also cause significant reputational damage to organisations.
In 2010 CIFAS estimate that 100,000 frauds will be reported against offline identities of individuals (source - CIFAS: www.cifas.org.uk)
In comparison 3.9m UK Internet users experience fraud affecting their online identities every year (source: Eurostat Internet usage 2010).
The average loss from these is between £352 to £1,000 (source: YouGov / Verisign and NFA)
So 3.9m UK Internet users are hit by online fraud every year. This is the same as:
- The number of people who have their mobile phone stolen every year
- The loss is about the same as it costs to replace an IPhone or a smartphone
This means that 97.5% of all frauds committed every year against individuals happen online but amazingly and despite how they are marketed, credit monitoring services alone offer no protection against this.
The National Fraud Authority (NFA) said in October 2010 that fraudsters who stole identities had gained £1.9bn in the past year with their activities affecting 1.8 million people a year. Stolen identities have been put to a variety of dishonest uses, including buying goods or services, obtaining state benefits, or opening bank accounts under false identities.
Even worse, studies in the U.S. show that a significant part of identity fraud has a financially ‘catastrophic’ effect on the individuals concerned, particularly
- those who are especially vulnerable (such as members of the armed services or police and prison officers) and
- those whose credibility can be damaged significantly as a result (such as senior professionals).
Identity fraud also affects organisations where corporate identities are stolen or copied, computer systems hacked into and brands badly damaged. One recent example involved the servers of the biggest Internet Service Provider in a major country being hijacked to send out innocent-looking, but in reality, virus-laden, Emails with the intention of identity theft. The reputation of the firm involved was significantly damaged.
... we can provide the answer
PKF work with Garlik, the on-line identity experts, to provide an award winning service to protect against online and identity fraud for a low annual subscription of just £45 per person.
The service proactively searches across a comprehensive variety of data sources, including:
- Public websites
- Compromised and stolen data sources traded on the internet
- Births, Marriages and Deaths register
- Electoral Roll
- Royal Mail redirect database to highlight the existence of fraudulent redirections
to protect
- Personal information – Name, Online usernames, Aliases, Email addresses
- Contact information - Home address, Other address, Telephone numbers
- Financial information - Credit/debit cards, Bank details, Online banking IDs, PayPal IDs etc
If any trace of the protected information is found where it shouldn’t be, then subscribers are alerted instantly by email and text and given help and advice on what action to take.
Subscribers also have access to the expert Garlik Care service which aims to provide all the help and advice users need to protect themselves from fraud or resolve any issues if they do become a victim of fraud.
We also use the same award winning technology to offer a corporate and brand protection service for organisations. Costs vary but represent a highly cost-effective defence and can include personal protection against online and identity fraud for senior executives.
Services are currently provided to a number of organisations in the UK and internationally including the RBS group, Sky, CPP, Direct Line and Morethan.
Find out more
Download our Identity Fraud Protection flyer here
To find out more please ring 020 7065 0557 or Email jim.gee@uk.pkf.com.
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