back to article Criminals a bit less interested in nicking Brits' identities this year

New figures reveal UK identity fraud dropped during the first six months of 2018 to reach a four-year low. Cifas members recorded 84,463 cases of identity fraud in the first six months of the year, a 5 per cent drop compared to the same period in 2017 (89,199). Despite the reduction, identity fraud still represents over half …

  1. Waseem Alkurdi
    Stop

    From the article:

    The number of victims aged under 21 in Cifas' figures rose from 1,012 in 1H17 to 1,309 in 1H18.

    Is that an easter egg? 1h in hex -> 1 in decimal though.

    1. FlossyThePig

      1H17 - 1H18

      @ Waseem Alkurdi

      It's just lazy writing. 1H17 = first half of 2017. The report actually uses "Jan-June 2017"

      I had to search to find out that CIFAS was originally the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System. We all knew that didn't we?

  2. tiggity Silver badge

    Given the huge amount of data breaches there have been over the years maybe the crims are running out of new targets, as most of the low hanging fruit must have been plucked by now

    ..Though given that trying to report "minor" crimes in UK is nigh on impossible these days then I would imagine its massively under reported.

    1. Cuddles

      "..Though given that trying to report "minor" crimes in UK is nigh on impossible these days then I would imagine its massively under reported."

      Unlikely, this has nothing to do with crime reports. As the article notes, CIFAS is essentially a data aggregator for member organisations to share information about fraud. Those member organisations include basically every bank as well as most significant companies dealing with financial stuff - insurance, telecoms, and so on. It doesn't matter what the police might be doing with crime reports, if you've told your bank or whoever about something suspicious, or if they've detected it on their own, then CIFAS have a record of it.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Be curious to know if it's just UK nationals ?

    Apparently UK passports have dropped in value on the dark web too ?

    Now that's a Brexit dividend they should be bussing about ....

    1. macjules

      Re: Be curious to know if it's just UK nationals ?

      Is there a difference in value between blue passports and red ones?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is there a difference in value between blue passports and red ones?

        Nope.

        They will be both worthless after next March. Think of it as the BREXIT dividend. No more travel abroad taking ££££££ with us so we'll spend it all at home and therefore saving the economy from crashing even harder.

        /s /s /s

        Oh, and the moon is made of green cheese.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Be curious to know if it's just UK nationals ?

        Is there a difference in value between blue passports and red ones?

        There used to be. Back in the days when we all had blue passports, anybody carrying a red one was SIS or equivalent, and even the military were told "if they have a red passport you do what they tell you", and most of the people who handled passports for a living understood that you didn't really want to hold up 007.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Oy!

      Give me back my identity!

  4. Crisp

    Surely this is just market saturation

    Identity fraud has dropped because all the good ones have been taken.

  5. Wellyboot Silver badge

    They've moved on

    >>fraudsters applying for plastic card accounts rose 12 per cent<<

    >>Identity fraud against online retail accounts rose by 24 per cent<<

    Do they now have everyones details and are targeting peoples existing online accounts as a softer option.

  6. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

    My identity has already been stolen

    I looked at the photo on my passport and my identity has been stolen...and replaced by some fat, bald and ugly old man.

  7. Joel 1
    Childcatcher

    Need your details?

    >Fraudsters need access to their victim’s personal information such as name, date of birth, address, existing bank account etc in order to impersonate victims

    Nope - only time I've ever had a CIFAS record entered was from a fraud perpetrated on very.co.uk - their credit checks were so great that they managed to accept a fraudulent application from someone who was not even using my name at my address.

    We had never used them, and it was only later on that I discovered that very's entire business model was based on bait and switch to try and encourage people in to opening a credit account. My wife thought recently that she was doing some online shopping, but it appeared that the only way to buy said product was to open a credit account. She was waiting for the bit when they asked for CC details...

    With 'credit' providers like them, who needs fraudsters?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Time the government / companies house woke up to the problem

    As a matter of government policy, companies house publishes documents online for the whole world to see. As I was an IT contractor at one time with my own limited company, that means my full name, address, date of birth and even scans of my signature are freely available online. A gift to would be ID thieves.

    I'm very cautious about giving away any personal details and don't do so with social media etc; but I can't stop reckless organisations just giving away all this information for free to anyone who cares to look.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: Time the government / companies house woke up to the problem

      As a matter of government policy, companies house publishes documents online for the whole world to see. As I was an IT contractor at one time with my own limited company, that means my full name, address, date of birth and even scans of my signature are freely available online. A gift to would be ID thieves.

      Since the Companies Act 2006 came into force, they don't publish date of birth, only the month and year, nor do they publish the usual residential address unless the person also makes it their service address. And there is no reason why you have to use the same signature on company accounts as your cheques. Many people just type their name rather than sign it anyway.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Time the government / companies house woke up to the problem

        Unfortunately, my registration pre-dates this, so all those personal details are on show, even today, along with those of my wife who was the company secretary. When I set up my company, the internet was in its infancy and I doubt any of the documents were scanned and put online at that time. While I was aware the documents could be made available to those who requested them; it never occurred to me, nor did anyone advise me that such documents would be made so freely available online in the future. Just visit companies house website, put in the name of the company and read every document I've ever submitted to them along with all the personal info. Anyone in the world can see the information, including scammers in Nigeria, Russia etc.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    ID fraud drops to four-year low

    It isn't ID fraud, it's criminals stealing money from a bank:

    Mitchell and Webb Identity Theft

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