Consumers 'not rushing to take out ID theft insurance'
Published On 16 May 2008
People tend to ignore ID theft and fraud insurance because they do not believe they will be affected by such crimes, an industry expert has claimed.Neil Munroe, the external affairs director at Equifax, explained that many people in the country were yet to be affected by any form of identity fraud.
He said that this meant that, thought there were companies offering insurance against these problems, consumers had been slow so far to take it up.
"The problem with ID theft and fraud is that most people don't think that it's going to happen to them," Mr Munroe added.
"Therefore, they don't really think about insuring against it. It's probably the same sort of approach that we all adopt to insurance. We take it when we feel we need it."
Despite this, Mr Munroe said the market for identity fraud insurance was rapidly expanding, with different policies designed to suit an individual's needs.
"The market has certainly come forward with solutions and more solutions over the last couple of years as ID theft and fraud has grown and become more prevalent. There are more policies out there and they are quite varied in what they cover, from basic support to more involved support," he concluded.
The UK's fraud prevention service, Cifas, reported that there were 77,500 cases of ID fraud in the country in 2007.
