Did you know that if you lose your driving licence, you are at risk of identity fraud?

[TheFieldOfStars]

Posting in AIBU for traffic!

I always keep my driving licence in my purse, but I've recently learnt that this is inadvisable because if you lose your driving licence, it contains enough personal information (name, address, date of birth etc) that it could be used to commit identity fraud if it fell into the wrong hands.

I had no idea, and nor did DH. Almost a million people apply for a replacement licence each year (not including licences replaced due to change of address etc), so it seems that there is quite low awareness of this issue.

In the UK, there's no requirement to produce your driving licence on demand (you have seven days to take it to a police station, if ever you're asked), so the safest place to keep your licence is at home.

So many people use them for ID for buying alcohol etc though so can't just leave them at home.

I'm in my late 30s but still get asked every now and them by visually challenged checkout staff.

Why on earth has it quoted the OP - I'm certain I didn't do that!

Yanbu and thank you 😊

Of course losing a card used for identification puts you at risk of identity fraud...

Surely that's a bit obvious? It has your details on it, so can be used. I don't understand how you (and your DH!) didn't realise this? How odd.

Don't you have your photo on your driving licence in the UK?

Also, if you lose a bag w keys in it, the driving licence pretty much tells a thief where to go!

Well yes, it's obvious now we know about it! But I guess when we first got purses/wallets and slotted our bank cards, library cards, gym membership cards, supermarket loyalty cards etc in, our driving licences just went in with all the others. And of course, you never really think you'll lose your purse/wallet.

I don't feel bad about not realising because it appears that nearly a million people per year have to order a replacement driving licence, so it's clearly not just us!

Yes, we do. However, sometimes the fraudster is able to emulate the look of the licence holder (if neither person is particularly distinctive looking). And in many cases of ID fraud, the photo isn't required - the personal information (name, address, date of birth) is all that's needed.

Yabu. Not having ID is not practical for anyone who looks anywhere near 25 and wants to buy alcohol, or any other age restricted item, visit a pub etc. This is quite a lot of the population.

A lesser known fraud is people applying for a license from a random address, then turning up to collect it as the 'friend of someone who lived here recently'. They then use the fraudulent driving licence to rack up debt to your address.

Why would having to order a replacement mean they didn't realise their licence could be used for identity theft? I'd assume it means they lost it, I doubt it's that high a percentage have had it stolen.

"Last year there were 931,527 applications for replacement driving licences. This figure does not include licences updated for a change of address or name. Although there is no mechanism for recording the exact split in numbers, the DVLA told us: “We know anecdotally that the vast majority of these are lost, and a significant number are stolen. Only a small number are damaged and require replacement.”
https://blog.greenflag.com/2018/keep-driving-licence-home-avoid-identity-theft-warns-dvla/

Here is the link if you're interested in reading more about it.

Someone did this to me, but they sent away for a new one with my details but changed the photo. I don't know how etc, but it was about 16 or 17 years ago and two undercover officers knocked on my door and when j opened it and said who I was they said yeah, definitely not the person they were looking for. Fraudulent cheque cashing using the driving license. It was something to do with paperwork sent to my old address or something, they never got back to me about it.

I'm rather surprised that not everyone knows this! I thought that you meant if you lost it for speeding, or whatever. Any piece of ID can be used to set up fake accounts.

This really. You just have to be careful. I need ID even to go to the dump.

Interesting. It seems that lots of people do keep their driving licence on them, either because they hadn't considered the security aspect (like me), or they need to use it as ID so regularly that it's not practical to keep it at home. The large numbers of stolen licences quoted in the article above suggested that it is a problem, but it's several years old and most people on this thread do seem to know about the issue so perhaps awareness has increased since the article was written.

But that isn’t that useful of a statistic. We ordered a new driving licence for DH this month as he needed it for a car rental and I couldn’t find his licence we usually keep at home. Turns out it had fallen down the back of the shelf. We keep ours at home because we don’t need to take them out, but still had to order a replacement - and had zero fraud risk as a result.

I don’t think it’s any more of a risk than if someone got ahold of a letter addressed to you, looked you up on social media and found out when your birthday is. Sadly if someone wants to commit identity fraud, there are about a million ways you can be targeted.