We like to think of ourselves as the Microsoft of the energy world - Enron CEO Kenny Lay
|
|
|
Is £360 billion really at risk to ID theft?
A SURVEY claims that the average UK adult is exposed to online ID theft to the tune of £10,000.
The YouGov survey used some interesting maths to arrive at the figure of £360 billion - the UK adult population of around 36 million multiplied by 10,000, we guess.
The pan-European survey of nearly 2,000 surfers, found that three quarters gave away their date of birth, home address and mother’s maiden name and reckons we’re all giving away our details to banks, gambling sites and social networks far too freely.
Is there any other way to access an online or telephone bank account apart from by answering security questions? Aren’t we mostly glad that at least some cursory security check is done before we can access our accounts? Does the average adult on Facebook have ten grand lying around? [Does the average adult on Facebook have ten braincells? - Ed]
"This figure is the total sum of monetary assets available in the average person’s online accounts, which could include banking, gaming and shopping accounts," says the survey. Who keeps their money in the shops, we wonder?
And of course none of this tallies with the credit crunch hysteria which says that the average UK adult is in fact £33,000 in debt. Clearly those nasty ID thieves can run up your overdraft further or max out your credit cards. But do we really risk losing £360 billion as the survey says, each of us being worth over £10,000 to criminals?
This kind of well spun nonsense, packed as it is with the words "could" and "appears" and caveats such as this beauty: "nearly half of the respondents (43 percent) have experienced online identity fraud or know someone that has been a victim" does no-one any credit.
Not the researchers and certainly not the hard working journalists [Eh? - Ed] who rewrote, or in most cases didn’t even bother rewriting, the press release. µ
Share this:
Share
We run the National Identity Theft Assistance Centre. The level of identity fraud in the UK is at relatively very low levels. Many id theft stories are hyped beyond belief, not just this one. Even the Home Office estimate of annual losses of £1.7bn is hugely exaggerated. If anyone is concerned about id fraud, get free and impartial advice from us at www.annualcreditreport.co.uk. There is a risk of falling victim, but with simple and cost-free precautions, you can reduce the risk to a very low level indeed. In our view, hyped id fraud stories are partly to help justify id cards and partly to help create a consumer id theft industry - the id theft protection industry is the US is worth $1bn per annum according to the US press, but hey, ho, there's another id theft statistic taken best with a large pinch of salt. But there's no doubt that there is a substantial industry in the US built on consumer fear, which need not be imported to the UK.
Strange to see Lady Di pop up to scribble for the Inq. Hope it won't be the last time...

AT adds: She'll be doing some more stuff as soon as she finishes my ironing.
It will be as soon as ID cards are "rolled out". So they should just roll them back in again, and pretend the subject was never mentioned.
To genuinely report news, for most, is like observing that, “The Sun Shines”. Mere commentary is boring for in reality, there is no need for the gossips tarted as news every breathing moment [or non-breathing as in your case]. It’s all about commerce and people being groomed and convinced that we need news/gossips as an adjunct to existing. And here’s a spicy obsevation worthy of being news and more conspiracy [theory]. There is an advantage to dying young … because you’ll never get to be old [or be seen to look like a broomstick pilot]. Pity about Anglo-Saxony failing to make you a saint … yet. 

Here’s some real news … “God is Great”. So how come only the nutters are proclaiming that? Because they need to be convinced. When a person is excessive in behaviour, he’s just waiting for the moment to be in abandonment. Like some president or prime minister who merely believes that he has been chosen by “god” for expressing “the qualities of godliness”. You can be certain that when a dog barks in the company of worshippers, no one sees him howling when he’s alone. The Swinging Set that humans revel in is mere loneliness in reality, whether he is alone or be in the company of billions in the whole universe. Only the person who has found his true self can be in true collectivity, the news, diehard capitalists & communists included. News, the attempt at collectivity of the gossip mongrels.


AT adds: I think you may have called the wrong number, old chap.
But Six Degrees of Separation has taught us that "royal" punters (lo, posers?) at one end of the scales skew the law of averages and inflatiates diminishing returns. Cheer up, lass. Your credit is still good in Nigeria, unrest excepted.

I have to agree with you on this one. I see a push coming in government on a new law and this is there help to get people worried. If over 40% of users have had there ID taken it would be ,well a mess beyond what we can even think of.
Story's like this should be taken down because of how stupid it is. 
This must have been written by a FaceBook user with only 9 brain cells.
I would just keep laughing ,but data like this can cause outcomes that hurt people for no reason , and other than to get there story on the wire to make the writer look famous it should be vetted. 
Thank you for putting some common sense into the story.
I think the issue is not how much information is needed to get to someone's bank account, but to new credit card under someone else's identity; then it doesn't matter if he has 10000, they will be charged the same.