Fraud Facts
- The cost of identity theft on the UK economy is estimated at £1.7 billion annually. (Home Office Identity Fraud Steering Committee)
- It can cost a victim of identity theft up to £8,000 and over 200 hours of their time to restore their reputation in extreme cases. (CIFAS)
- Identity fraud accounts for a criminal cashflow of £10m per day (CIFAS)
- Identity fraud itself is not a crime and the costs are often hidden in statistics for crimes such as deception and theft. This makes it hard to gauge the true financial cost of such offences.
- CIFAS cites impersonation of the dead as the fastest growing identity theft crime in the UK today.
- The DMA estimates that 22 million items of direct marketing mail are sent to the deceased each year. Not only does this cause untold stress to family members but documentation contained within the mail can be used to aid identity theft.
- There are 80 million active NI numbers in the UK which has a population of 60 million. (CIFAS)
- Credit and debit card fraud has a high toll on society as many of the proceeds from such crime are used to fund drug trafficking and terrorism. (Card Watch)
