UK wide open to identity theft

A survey of Londoners has found that 92 per cent of them will give a stranger all the information required to steal their identity.

Researchers offering the chance to win theatre tickets questioned over 200 people. Over the course of a three-minute interview the researchers asked a series of questions about theatre habits but also extracted names, addresses, school history and the names of parents and siblings.

"The results of the survey are disturbing to say the least, but they do highlight the need to raise public awareness of identity theft, what it actually means, how it can happen and the potential consequences," said Detective Inspector Chris Simpson, head of Scotland Yard's Computer Crime Unit.

"Preventing the theft of your own identity is relatively simple, but it relies on the individual taking steps to protect themselves.

"This involves restricting the people to whom you reveal sensitive personal data (whether in the physical or virtual context), shredding or destroying personal correspondence before disposing of it, and never sharing passwords to access computer systems."

During the survey 98 per cent of people gave out their addresses, 92 per cent revealed their mother's maiden name and pet's name, 96 per cent gave their home phone number and the same proportion gave the name of their first school.

This information is all that would be required to open a bank account in their names.

The Home Office estimates that 10,000 people in the UK were the victims of identity fraud last year.