Shoppers should take extra care to protect themselves against ‘St Nick’– the fraudster you don’t want to meet this Christmas – advises CreditExpert, the online credit monitoring and identity fraud prevention service from Experian.

At a time when our finances are often pushed to their limits, many people can expect to experience the ‘Christmas credit stretch’. But just imagine if you discovered somebody else was splashing out on their Christmas shopping by stealing your identity!

London is the UK’s identity theft hot spot, with a quarter of all identity theft cases taking place in the capital this year. Londoners are twice as likely to become victims of this crime than in the average UK region, reveals CreditExpert.

More than one in five identity theft cases took place in the South East and the North West is identified to be the UK’s third identity theft hot spot, with one in ten victims living in the region. Residents in these regions are also more likely to be victims of identity theft than in any other region of the UK.

Consumers are safest in Northern Ireland, where just 1 per cent of all identity theft cases took place, just over a third of the UK regional average. The South West and Scotland are also the second and third safest spots in the UK.

Shoppers nationwide should be on their guard as CreditExpert's research shows that no part of the country is safe. Consumers are also warned that St Nick comes in a variety of guises.

He may raid your dustbin to steal the personal information you throw away or he may trap you into giving him your details on the internet or on the phone; with online shopping increasing by 78 per cent in the last year it’s never been more important to protect your identity when shopping on the Internet.

Jill Stevens, the Director of Consumer Affairs at Experian, comments: “With the cost of Christmas burning a whole in even the deepest of pockets, the last thing consumers want is to help a fraudster go on a spree."

"Although the end loser is usually the defrauded bank, without help it can take you up to 400 hours to unravel the muddle left by a fraudster who has used your good credit history. And all the time his debts are on your record you probably won’t be able to get credit yourself. As the average spend by ‘St Nick’ is £1,000 per account, it really is worth making sure this doesn’t happen to you."

“Everyone should realise their personal details are as precious as the cash in their wallets, especially because fraudsters thwarted by the new chip and PIN security methods are turning to identity theft as a way to steal our hard-earned cash this Christmas."

“A credit monitoring service will alert you each time an application for credit is made in your name. If you know you haven’t made any applications, then you can act to stop the fraudster in his tracks. If you are unlucky enough to be targeted, there are experts on hand to help immediately to make sure your credit history is protected.”

Identity fraud is one of the UK’s fastest growing crimes, rising by 29 per cent between April 2003 and April 2004, affecting 100,000 people in the last year and costing the UK £1.3 billion each year. Most alarmingly, it takes, on average, 18 months for victims of identity fraud to realise that they have been targeted. St Nick doesn’t mind if his victims live in towns or cities, as long as you have a good credit history you could be on his Christmas list.

CreditExpert, the UK’s only online personal credit report monitoring service is available on a free, no-obligation 30-day trial basis. Members have real-time online access to their credit report via www.creditexpert.co.uk and are alerted every time important changes take place.