Published: 20/10/2009

You may think the odds are in your favour when it comes to being a victim of identity fraud. But using other people's stolen personal details to obtain credit and commit scams is one of the UK's fastest growing crimes - and the fraudsters are always on the lookout for ways to up their game.

So it makes sense to get wise to their dirty tactics and start practising some fancy defensive footwork of your own.

This newsletter article is part of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, which is aimed at increasing awareness of fraudsters' activities, and providing information and advice on protecting yourself from the criminals.

To help protect your details, take a few minutes to check out these 10 top tactics.

1. Keep your passwords secret
Being careless with your passwords and PINs is almost inviting someone to hack into your accounts. So make sure you:

• Don't write them down
• Never give them to other people
• Avoid obvious passwords such as your pet's or children's names or your birthday.

 
2 Don't respond to dodgy e-mails and texts
Never reply to messages from people you don't know or anything that looks suspicious, even if it seems to have come from a friend - just delete them straight away. The same goes for phishing e-mails that appear to come from your bank or card company and ask you to input your personal details - genuine companies never ask you to do this so don't fall for the scam.

The senders of these e-mails aim to gather data that can be used to steal your money and trash your credit status.

What to do:

• Delete unsolicited e-mails immediately - 99 per cent of us fail to observe this simple precaution, according to a recent survey by PC Tools
• Alert any organisation a dubious e-mail purports to come from, using the phone number or e-mail address you already have or one you look up on the Internet - don't use the contact information in the e-mail or website, it could send you straight back to the criminals
• Never click on links in these e-mails - you could unwittingly give a virus access to your computer and all the information in it, especially if you're one of the 43 per cent of us who either have no security software installed or never update it

3 Check your credit report regularly
This is the personal history of your credit accounts, such as cards and loans, so by keeping an eye on it you'll see immediately if there are any suspicious entries and be able to contact the relevant lender to set things straight. You can see your Experian credit report right now with a free 30-day trial of CreditExpert.

4 Don't give away too much information
Take care that you don't inadvertently give fraudsters a helping hand by revealing personal details about yourself on social networking sites like Facebook. Use the security options so you only share private information, such as your name, address, date of birth and holiday dates, with close friends.

5 Register to vote
It might not seem important but putting your name on the electoral roll at your current address is a simple way of protecting yourself against a criminal misusing your details.

6 Go through your statements
Always make time to check through your bank, card, mobile phone and other financial statements for irregularities the sooner you come across any suspicious transactions, the sooner you'll be able to sort them out. Get into the habit of checking your account regularly via online banking or reading through your bank statement thoroughly as soon as it arrives in the post.

7 Sign-up for alerts from CreditExpert
By taking advantage of an online monitoring service you will be notified immediately if there is any significant change to your credit report - so you will know straight away if, for example, someone else is applying for credit in your name.

8 Shred don't bin
Just because you think something is rubbish it doesn't mean it won't be useful to someone else, so make sure you dispose of old bank statements and other private documents carefully - preferably by shredding them.

9 Update your security software
 

As a nation, we Brits are rather bad at computer security - at least a third of us leave ourselves open to cyber crime by failing to update our anti-virus programs and firewalls. Make sure you have the latest versions installed and install your updates regularly.

10 Watch out for shoulder surfers
When you are using your card at an ATM or some other public place, beware of people watching you - they could be memorising your PIN or even taking a sneaky photo with a phone.

You can see your Experian credit report for free with a 30-day trial of CreditExpert.