Tuesday 5 July 2016

News report exposes 57% increase in Identity theft


An article about ID theft on Radio four this morning prompted me to share some information with you and to highlight help available for ARAG Family Legal Solutions policyholders.
The news report exposed an increase of 57% in the number of victims of identity theft last year from 94,500 victims in 2014 to 148,000 victims in 2015.
Research found that fraudsters scour social media websites to obtain personal data such as name, date of birth, address and bank details and it was claimed that " Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn had become a "hunting ground" for identity thieves". More than 85% of the frauds were carried out online.
Here's a link to the BBC news item which provides further links to articles about keep personal ID safe and the type of scams to guard against. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36701297
Here is another link that was mentioned on Martin’s Money Saving website. This looks quite good
Check if hackers have stolen your personal info. It allows you to find out if passwords, email addresses, your home address, phone numbers or your DOB have been exposed after the big hacks of the last few years (including the recent LinkedIn warning). Hack check

Help from ARAG
ARAG Family Legal Solutions provides a helpline and full resolution service for policyholders who want advice about and tips keeping personal information secure or suspect that they may have been the target of ID theft. The helpline is available 8.00am – 8.00pm and policyholders will find the contact phone number in their ARAG policy wording. The Insured can claim for reimbursement of communication costs incurred to repair their credit rating and get help to communicate with banks and card providers. Most ID theft problems can be resolved with the help of a resolution case-worker.

If, following the resolution case-worker’s assistance, it becomes necessary to pursue or defend legal action to resolve the matter, cover is available to pay the Insured’s legal costs. The case-worker will help the Insured to report the matter to our Claims Team at that point and we will arrange to appoint a lawyer under the terms of the policy.

Watch this space…... We will soon be bringing you more information about some of the cases we have dealt with.  



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