ID fraud targeted at young, single renters

ID fraud is being targeted at young, single people living in a rental property with young professionals renting property in London and Glasgow being most at risk.

Personal information, such as name, address or telephone number, if not held securely can be obtained and used by ID fraudsters.

According to CreditExpert those now most likely to be targetted in the UK live in rented property in and around cities.

The next most targeted are young, single people and home sharers working in service industries and living in flats mainly rented from the council or housing associations.

Then there’s graduates or who are renting private property in good areas whilst they pay off their student debts and save for a mortgages.

To check you haven’t been caught with ID fraud, one thing to do is to check your credit report on a regular basis so you can quickly spot any unfamiliar activity, including for example a fraudulent loan application.

You can get a free credit report quickly and easily online.

Director of CreditExpert, Darryl Bowman, commented ‘Criminals are switching their focus from the wealthy to people whose details they can get hold of more easily. Because of this, each one of us needs to be aware of the dangers of ID fraud and take steps to protect our identity and stop thieves from getting access to our personal information.’

As well as checking your credit report, there are other steps you can take to protect yourself – read our article on ‘Personal Information – Protect it!‘ for some helpful information.

Fraudsters seek to get hold of your personal information by any means. A key target is shared hallways where they can intercept mail.

Those in rented accommodation tend to move more often, consequently unless they redirect their mail they open themselves up to the ID fraudsters as their mail gets delivered, and often left, at a previous address.

London is a highly targetted area, outside though commuter towns such as St Albens, Slough, Guildford and Windsor are on the list of areas where the threat of ID fraud is higher than the average.

CreditExpert provides UK consumers with their Experian credit report which includes details of loans and credit with the accounts’ repayment history for the last 3 years, the sources of the information and records of whos’ accessed the information.

It also provides public information such as CCJs, bankruptcies and electoral role entries.

Experian plc is part of the FTSE 100 index, listed on the London Stock Echange.