To be surprised about identity theft

[Gimmesomemore]

I always assumed that it would be difficult to commit identity theft and use that information to obtain goods/services etc. It appears not - or I'm extremely naive.

Somebody has used my dh's name and address to take out a monthly mobile phone contract, via a well known supermarket chain.

They wrote to my DH this morning welcoming him to their service plan and that he'll receive his bill within 10 days time. DH dismissed it as a marketing ploy or possible scam, to get you to ring their number or if legit for them to sell you something.

Anyway, I rang the number on the letter, and it turns out somebody has just done that, and even gave false bank details. It's been passed to their fraud department and they've put a stop on the account.

According to Action Fraud, who we reported this to afterwards, said this is extremely common. Especially through mobile contracts being bought through supermarket chains, as they don't do the proper checks!

So we've spent a good couple of hours this afternoon checking that this is all they have done with dh's details....

Extremely common and extremely easy. Get copies of your credit files to see if there is anything else on there that shouldn't be

Will do, thanks MooMaid.

So does that mean that someone has walked out of a supermarket with a brand new phone without effectively paying for it? What do they do then, put a PAYG sim in and enjoy their free phone? Surely the phone company would block it?

YABU!

do you shred all your rubbish, etc. Round here gangs of men on bikes patrol the area at night, going through household rubbish looking for "deets" ( personal details) which are sold on for a high price.

Yes someone has a free phone, or sells it on.

We are very careful and do shred. Both the police fraud dept (action fraud) and dh's bank fraud department, think it's from when dh worked for himself and they get the info from companies house.

Contact CIFAS to have additional security checks put on your identity when people try to take put credit in your name

Very common, and not difficult from what I understand. Good thing that you checked it out by calling the number.

I rip or shred anything with personal details on it before it goes into recycling. Sometimes I end up with a great pile of it to go through and it is a chore (I'm eyeing up one such pile of old bank statements right now).

This is just reminding me now that I must order myself a new shredder. Mine seems to have gone blunt and stopped chopping properly, even though I have cleaned all of the build-up out of it.

My husband had his debit card cloned a couple of times. We don't know how they obtained the details as we think we are pretty careful, but it still happened. He didn't find out until it was declined at the till in Tesco. Fortunately he did have a back-up credit card with him and paid with that before returning to the office to find his bank had just tried to contact him there. It turned out that someone had tried to use the cloned card to buy £1,000 worth of iTunes.

It feels like and invasion of personal space almost, and is a total PITA, but unfortunately it isn't difficult for accomplished fraudsters to do.

Happened to me recently with two bank accounts and a credit card. I'm 99% sure who did it too - a sociopathic ex friend with no morals and a liking for Class A drugs. What I didn't understand was why the bank would have sent cards etc to my home address - I'd had no previous post go missing and my credit rating should have precluded any of them being issued (long long story there worthy of the telling one rainy day). Anyway they were all cancelled within minutes, Action Fraud notified and a note put on file.

Christ that's cheeky.

Apparently the chances of getting your details from your rubbish are fairly slim compared to the ease with which they can obtain information on line.

We had a call from Lloyds once to ask my dh if he'd used his card on some particular transactions, as his account was showing lots of train tickets and phone credits. It actually flagged up as unusual spending and they rang us to check. We had no idea as dh never checks his account. They stopped some that hadn't gone out yet and refunded those that had. I was very impressed.

We think it must have been copied from an online transaction as he never goes anywhere to spend on it.

I never use my bank card on line.

It was used online once, when I was in hospital, I don't know who or how got it from the ward. But the bank stopped it immediately, and replaced it.

This happened to my DH many years ago. Bank were on it like a dose of fleas though. At exactly the same time DH was paying for some Christmas gifts in M&S someone else was running up £400 restaurant bill and a £50 petrol bill in another city 150 miles away.
The only time DH had lost sight of his credit card was in a local wine shop approx a week before where the assistant took his card into the back office because 'the counter credit card terminal is not working'.
This was in the very early days of identity theft.