Do You Live Where You Live?

Experian listed the top 25 riskiest postcodes, well riskiest from the perspective of ID fraud - so someone else may be pretending to live where you live! Apparently you are most at risk if you earn >£50k, self-employed or a company director and rents rather than owns your own home.

I can quite believe that there are areas where you are most at risk from ID theft - just as with any theft the criminals are going to go after someone who looks like they have money rather than one that doesn’t. However, I am not sure how they can readily spot company directors or self-employed… or that you earn more than £50k per year. As for renting rather than owning, that can be more readily found and perhaps as it is a rented property and therefore has probably had a number of occupants in recent years so getting an old utility bill from a rubbish bin might be easier.

Still, it makes for interesting reading… and whether or not you live in one of the mentioned postcodes, it does well to remind us to be careful of our personal information. Always shred utility bills, credit card and bank statements rather than throw them away. Shred speculative ‘you have been approved’ credit card junk mail and get yourself off their lists.

Think what the information you are throwing out could be used for if it fell into the wrong hands - and make sure it doesn’t happen.

May 29, 2008 | Filed Under data-loss 

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