Stamp Out Identity Theft and Save £1.7billion
by Paul Watson, EasyEditor Newswire, www.easyeditor.net
Firms and individuals are being urged to adopt stricter security measures as identity theft, industrial espionage and petty theft boom during the recession, claim experts.
Identity theft is growing at a rate of more than 500 per cent a year, making it Britain’s fastest growing white collar crime, and is estimated to cost the UK economy more than £1.7billion a year.
Despite it taking an average of six months to two years to sort out the mess caused by identity thieves the majority of UK households regularly discard letters and documents containing sensitive information ranging from pre-approved credit card offers to shopping catalogues with names, addresses and account numbers.
“Identity theft is big business. It is estimated that more than 18 million UK households regularly throw away sensitive documents without obliterating even the most basic information such as name and address,” said Jimmy Johnston MBE, and owner of stampwithease.co.uk which provides a quick, cost effective and energy efficient method of protecting sensitive information.
“A piece of paper thrown in the rubbish with somebody’s full name and address on it can be almost as valuable to an identity thief as a bank statement or utility bill.
“Anything with a person’s name and private details, whether it’s a letter, invoice or customer order form is of value to criminals.
“It take just seconds to apply a security stamp over sensitive information on a letter to save thousands of pounds and years of misery.”
For many businesses the risks are even greater as information on suppliers, customers and shareholders can be invaluable to thieves and rival companies.
Almost 500,000 businesses in the UK could be victims of industrial espionage and many won’t ever realise until it’s too late.
Firms seeking price sensitive information, client databases, supplier information and intellectual property are increasingly resorting to underhand tactics in a bid to keep one step ahead of their rivals.
“It’s estimated that around 10 per cent of Britain’s 4.7million businesses at risk of intellectual property and identity theft,” said Simon Leila of security experts 360 Defence.
“It doesn’t take a genius to pinch a rubbish sack from outside an office and go through the contents. It is surprising how much potentially sensitive stuff is thrown out by firms every day.
“Printed out emails, copies of letters, old invoices, rough drafts of project pitches often end up in the bin. Tearing something up or even shredding it doesn’t always work, it just creates a jigsaw puzzle.
“The best thing to do is to obliterate the sensitive information so it can’t be read ,even if it’s put back together, and then put it in the bin. “
According to the Institute of Directors the potential of becoming a victim of industrial espionage is now greater than ever.
“Some 60 per cent of members have suffered from theft – be it electronic or of the more traditional form – while 14 per cent have reported internet crime in one form or another,” said an IoD spokesman.
“One of the many side effects of this recession is that business crime is on the up. This is another nightmare for bosses to grapple with, particularly at a time when companies are already facing huge pressures”.
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