Identity theft

[MarillionFan]

Just read a letter from my bank, they have already registered my details with CIFAS which is a little reassuring.

Ah. Bit slow there.

[SueEllen]

My nephew in law, who is a policeman at Gatwick, keeps telling me to shred everything but I would need an industrial sized one to cope with all the papers I have.

Just put them in shredding piles and put a through few every day. It may take you six months but least it will eventually be done..

The only problem is if you get burgled the burglar will have some interesting documents on you. So do them most recent first.

[FiveTimes]

Funny, I was thinking of asking about this myself.

Not had my identity hacked but have sorted a load of old papers out and not sure which are safe to chuck out, far too many seem to have DOB or NI number on them. My nephew in law, who is a policeman at Gatwick, keeps telling me to shred everything but I would need an industrial sized one to cope with all the papers I have.

Either shred them daily or put them in a metal bin and have burn them ...

Everyone loves fire

[xoggoth]

Think I will have to have a late bonfire night.

[TheFaQQer]

Equifax / Experian usually have a free trial to get the latest information.

annualcreditreport.co.uk do a free one once a year for you.

It's worth getting one now to see what recent applications have been made and sort it out sooner rather than later.

[norrahe]

Either shred them daily or put them in a metal bin and have burn them ...

Everyone loves fire

Burning them is fun.

[gingerjedi]

Wife just rang, I now have a Tesco Bank instant access account, card and PIN which all arrived together this morning.



The credit score company were happy to cancel the payment that was due to come out on the 4th, yeah thanks for that.

[Ravello]

GJ - same thing happened to me, I took all the steps you've taken so far.

The only other piece of advice is to keep an eye out for anyone trying to intercept your post/postman - obviously in order to "be you" they use your address so you get the cards and associated details sent to your address not much help to a would-be tea-leaf unless they can actually get a hold of them.

As an aside when I registered with CIFAS one of the first questions I was asked was whether I was a company director - it seems we're easy targets as name and address is listed on any old website with access to companies house...

[Sysman]

Either shred them daily or put them in a metal bin and have burn them ...

Everyone loves fire

True, but watch out for bits of paper taking off into the wind.

I once burnt a load of Sage printouts on a very blustery day and fragments of burnt printout blew up the chimney and ended up in the field next door.

Fortunately a neighbour spotted them, realised what they were and put them on her own fire.

P.S. Farmers' daughters not only know how to cook, but they realise what is confidential

[Hill Station Murthy]

To be honest I think you have nobody else to blame but yourself if these things have happened to you.

Let me give you some advice. get a shredder and shred all your posts, don't ver pay by plastic when they have only carbon paper machine and don't buy anything online.

Security over wire is pretty good in general but there are security holes often at the hops in between.