Beware of ID fraud during festive season

According to Neil Munroe, spokesman for credit reference agency Equifax, the good mood from Christmas and for new year preparations does not mean that people should lessen their protection against identity theft.

“It is historically a time of year when it’s a fairly open-season for fraudsters to be getting hold of information mainly because people are obviously out and about concentrating on buying presents and enjoying themselves and keeping their data and documents secure tends to become a secondary thing,” Mr Munroe said.

“If people aren’t careful some fraudsters will be having just as good a time as the rest of us.”

In addition to credit card debt or other forms of theft that identity fraud can incur, it can hit consumers in other ways.

If someone is unaware that their identity has been used, they could find that they have a lower credit rating, leading to higher charges for loans.