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Awareness is the first step to security
National Identity Fraud Awareness Week is Australia and New Zealand’s only nationwide awareness campaign designed to help you protect yourself and your business from identity fraud – a crime that concerns nine out of ten Australians. National Identity Fraud Awareness Week is an initiative of leading security products company, Fellowes, now in its fifth year it aims to educate Australians and New Zealanders about the dangers of identity fraud. According to a recent survey of 1,200 Australians on the concerns and experiences of identity theft, one in six Australians have been a victim or known somebody who has been a victim of identity theft or misuse in the past six months. This site helps you understand how identity fraud occurs and how you can protect yourself by taking a few simple steps to fight the fraudsters. *Identity Theft Concerns and Experiences Survey, conducted by Di Marzio research for the Attorney General, 2011. |
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About Identity Fraud |
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Identity fraud occurs when an individual or group use someone else’s personal information usually for a financial gain. Personal or confidential information can be gathered through a variety of means including bin raiding, phishing scams or theft of a wallet or purse. |
Once you have become a victim of identity fraud it can be difficult to recover any lost money and impossible to get back the time spent clearing your good name. Many victims continue to have issues with their credit rating years after the incident, proving a nightmare when applying for mortgages and loans. Understanding the risks and taking some simple steps can help prevent you from becoming a victim of identity fraud and another statistic. |
The Facts
- Fraud in Australia is the most costly of all crime types, costing an estimated $8.5 billion according to the Australian Institute of Criminology report, Consumer fraud in Australasia: 2008 and 2009.
- 90% of Australians are concerned about identity theft.
- Private information such as your date of birth, address, mother’s maiden name and passwords are now as valuable as money. This is enough information for a fraudster to open bank accounts, apply for credit cards, loans and much more.
- Businesses, which suffer fraud of this kind, are likely to be in breach of client confidentiality, which opens them to legal action for non-compliance with the Privacy Act.