October 29, 2008
Identity Theft - Cause for Concern
For individuals it means hours of work to deal with ID theft and the threat of your personal information being used for illegal purposes. For businesses it is a loss of reputation.
An Oldham woman says her life has become a living hell after falling victim to an identity fraud.
Catherine Machala Bennett fears she could lose her job and even her freedom after an illegal Ghanaian immigrant stole her ID.She said: “The whole situation is making me and my family ill with worry. I was lying awake in bed last night thinking the next knock on the door could be someone coming to deport me to Ghana instead of the real criminal.”“When I discovered all of this I thought it was ridiculous and the records would be easily rectified,” Catherine said. “But a year after all of this started I am being made to feel like the criminal when I’m the victim. I’ve never put a foot wrong except for a couple of parking fines – this has taken over my life.
Company X, a London-based small business has recently had its identity stolen (Oct 2008).
After contacting Companies House it transpired that someone had done a new filing that specifically changed the registered office.
Mr X, managing director of Company X says “In business you tend to hear the word fraud and you conclude that this is about an internal failure or theft, lack of financial controls. You do not tend to consider that a fraud can happen like this.
Corporate identity fraud is a crime that you have little control over within your business. The only means you have to prevent this are to ensure that you file with secured passwords etc or that you have an effective monitoring system in place to alert you if unfortunately you do become a victim of this crime. For any business but particularly as a small business this fraud could be devastating and put in jeopardy everything you have ever worked.
Identity Theft insurance protection is available from The Insurance Partnership – call us for details.
