ID fraud now on "an industrial scale"
Fraud was up by a quarter in 2014, with middle-aged city men being the worst affected.
Recorded frauds increased by over 25% last year, with men in their mid-40s being the worst affected, according to the UK's fraud prevention service.
Figures from the CIFAS Annual Report show that 23% of fraud victims are aged 41-50 with an overall average of 46. As for location, big cities like London, Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow are among the top fraud hotspots.
A total of 276,993 frauds were recorded last year, up from 221,075 in 2013. There are 758 frauds every day - that’s 31 every hour.
Tech savvy
Young people (21-30) are also becoming an increasingly major target, with victim numbers in this age group shooting up by 52% since 2011. However, identity fraud is on the rise across every age bracket. There’s been a 15% increase for those over 55 year-on-year. Men are also 1.7 times more likely to have their identity stolen than women. That said, the rate of increase in female impersonation is higher than in men so it could turn around in future.
Identity theft is easily the most dominant form of fraud, making up 41% of all cases. Identity fraudsters abuse personal data or identity details to impersonate victims or to create fictitious identities to steal money. These crimes are up 5% on 2013, totalling 114,000 cases.
It seems that criminals are adaptable, wising up to new security measures. Reports show significant drops in the takeover account fraud, which involves fraudsters hacking into, and taking over, existing accounts. As security on opening new accounts has tightened, they’re finding other ways to commit fraud. This type of fraud was down by 48% in 2014 compared to 2013.
Simon Dukes, chief executive at CIFAS, said: "The frauds we are recording point to increasingly sophisticated, predatory and organised criminals. This is crime at an industrial scale.”
With the help of its members, CIFAS prevented an estimated £1 billion worth of fraud in 2014.
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Financial products
Credit agency Experian’s fraud analysis found that fraud has risen for most financial products in the past 12 months.
But above all, current accounts have been cited as the fastest growing target for identity thieves.
Its research is in line with CIFAS’ in that inner city residents are a prominent target as fraudsters have been able to get easy access to shared mailed boxes.
For more read Current accounts fastest growing target for identity thieves.
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