James
Several years ago a girl stole my driving licence, cards, cheque book etc. She then had a car crash and produced all my documents, pretending to be me.
I have had letters saying I owe £18,000 which I think I have sorted out, but I have now received a letter from a bank saying I owe £5,000. The police said she had obtained a car in my name on credit and I am worried about what else she has done.
I really do not know what to do and am worried I am going to have to pay all this money. What else has she done in my name and how can I correct it? Thank you.
Mrs Pine, Clevedon
Mrs Pine
You've found out the hard way how distressing it is to be a victim of identity fraud. This is a nasty crime and an increasingly common experience that can be very upsetting and worrying. Which is why we have set up a special team within our Experian Consumer Help Service to help people who are victims of this horrible crime.
Contact the team and an expert will help you to spot any fraudulently-opened accounts, contact the lender or lenders involved, sort out your credit report and restore your credit status. We will also help you add security features to your credit report to help prevent any further fraud.
So order your credit report then contact our Consumer Help Service and tell them you are a victim of fraud. They will then begin to help you to sort things out as quickly and painlessly as possible.
You were unlucky as someone actually stole your documents, but many of us continue to make life far too easy for identity crooks by not looking after our personal information. A recent survey in London discovered that one in four rubbish bins contained a full bank account number and sort code - rich pickings for anyone willing to go through the garbage and illustrating how important it is for us to shred anything that contains our personal details before throwing it away. We should also all be on the lookout for obvious signs of fraud, by checking our bank and credit card statements carefully and by keeping an eye on our credit reports. Our CreditExpert service is an excellent way of doing this. You'll receive alerts telling you of any significant changes to your credit report which means you can check that nobody is trying to use your name to get credit again.
James