CIFAS reports 32 percent increase in identity theft cases in U.K. for 2009

Thursday, February 04, 2010

By AHN Staff
This article was published in AH All Headline News

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) - Identity theft cases in the United Kingdom went up by 32 percent in 2009. CIFAS, the U.K.'s fraud prevention agency, attributed the rise in identity theft incidents to the recession.

Overall, fraud cases increased by 9 percent across the country, but false insurance claims jumped by 55 percent last year and there was a major increase in facility takeover and misuse of facility frauds.

Along with the rise of identity theft cases is a hike in number of identity theft victims by 31 percent. Identity theft cases replaced application fraud, which registered a 25 percent decline in 2009.

According to CIFAS, there were over 85,000 victims of impersonation and 24,000 victims of bank account takeovers, which represent a 35 percent and 15 percent rise from 2008 levels.

To help battle identity fraud, CIFAS offered a protective registration, with listed members growing by 241 percent in 2009. CIFAS said the rise is because of heightened awareness among individuals and more organizations signing up for the service.

CIFAS Communications Manager Richard Hurley said in a statement, "The financial cost of fraud is bad enough, but the emotional and psychological effects for the victim must never be underestimated. Fraudsters are adapting their approach in an attempt to ensure that their profits do not suffer during the recession, with absolutely no thought for the profoundly damaging impact this has on their victims. The role played by online, organized, criminals trading in people's identity details has been frequently reported in recent years, and it is depressing to think that the numbers of victims of fraud demonstrates just how little these criminals care."

For 2009, while CIFAS reported a 55 percent increase in number of cases filed, for the same year the agency observed a similar 55 percent jump in fraudulent claims as Britons reported staged or fake events more than they filed inflated claims for damage and losses that they really incurred.