Is someone being you? The first you may know about it is when you get a bill or an account for something you have not bought or arranged. It is called identity theft. The Government says it is the UK’s fasting growing crime. And it costs the banks £1.7 billion a year.

Identity thieves work by finding out enough information about you to persuade a shop or a bank that they are you. Then they take out a credit card, rent a mobile phone, borrow money or buy things on credit. Eventually you will get the bill – or even a visit from a bailiff. ID theft and the crimes that follow it are alarming and can be very time consuming to put right. So it is important to take all the steps you can to prevent it happening in the first place.

Prevention
One reason for the growth in ID theft is recycling. Every week we separate paper from our other rubbish and leave it on the street overnight in a special box or bag. To an ID thief that is gold dust. To establish identity you are often asked for a utility bill, a letter from the bank, or an official document from the council or a government office. If you throw them away someone else can use them to prove they are you. So step one in battling ID theft is to buy a shredder. Preferably a cross-cut shredder that turns documents into chips of paper about 1½ inches long and less than a quarter inch wide. Put this confetti in a bag and the recyclers will still take it as paper waste. But you have destroyed any information it contained.

It is not just documents that are used to steal identity. Thieves will also telephone you pretending to be from the bank or the water company to ‘check’ on details. They do that to trick you into giving them your date of birth, account numbers or passwords. If someone calls you asking for such information never give it however plausible they seem. Ask where they are calling from, find the number for that organisation from your own records and call it yourself. Only then can you safely give out any information.

A technique that is growing in popularity among ID thieves is getting mail redirected. The thief will use information already obtained to pretend to be you and then change your address with your bank or credit card provider. In some case they might even tell the Post Office to redirect all your mail to an address they have access to. If post that you are expecting fails to arrive – especially a regular bank or credit card statement – then find out why. If you want to check if all your mail is being redirected contact Royal Mail. If you change address then make sure everyone knows it has changed and get all your mail forwarded to your new address for at least six months. That will cost you £24.90.

If you use your card to buy things online then check that the web page you put your details into has an address which begins ‘https’ not ‘http’ and there is a padlock at the top or bottom of the page. That shows it is a secure connection. Without that you could be sending your details to a cyber café in Russia.

Credit record
If someone does take out a card, a loan, a bank account or even a mobile phone contract in your name it will be noted on your credit record – the computer file which shows every credit deal you have and how well you keep up your payments. The files are kept by three credit reference agencies and you are entitled to see your record from each for a fixed fee of £2. All three agencies try to sell you access to your records at a higher price and the £2 offer can be hard to find. One service that is useful is an alert by email or text message if any new credit is taken out in your name. If you didn’t arrange it then you know your record has been compromised and you can check what has happened. That service costs a few pounds a month but you can get it free if you take out a credit card with Capital One.

If it happens
Although stealing money through ID theft is a crime which the Government claims to take seriously there is no point in reporting it to the police. Since 2007 the first place you have to go to report identity fraud involving credit or debit cards, online banking, or cheques is your bank or credit card company. It will then decide whether to inform the police or not. That procedure applies to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland you can still go direct to the police but you should also contact your bank or credit card provider to let them know.

If your ID is stolen and used to commit a crime the bank or card provider will bear the loss as long as you have been careful with your card and PIN. In theory. But banks and credit card providers can be very suspicious about claims of ID theft and you may find it takes a long time – often more than a year – to sort out what has happened and get money refunded. Experian, one of the three credit reference agencies, has a Victims of Fraud service which will help you free. You will also get free access to Experian’s credit monitoring service CreditExpert.

If there are delays in sorting out your ID theft then complain. First to the financial company itself. A letter to the Chief Executive at the head office often produces a better result than a complaint through the normal route. If that does not get the problem resolved quickly then complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It costs you nothing and can award compensation. But it can also take a while to resolve things.

If you are really concerned that your identity may be stolen you can register your address with an organisation called CIFAS. If there is any application for credit at that address you will be contacted directly to check with you. That means that nay application for credit or a bank account you make will also be delayed. CIFAS registration costs £14.10 a year.

Some banks and credit card providers try to sell you what they call ID theft insurance. Never buy it. If money is lost due to ID theft the bank or credit card provider bears the cost. So why should you pay for ‘insurance’ against it?