With identity theft on the rise, Bank of Scotland Credit Cards is calling on people to be more careful with the contents of their wallet and take all reasonable precautions to stop their credit cards being used fraudulently.
New research by the Bank of Scotland has shown that well over 500,000 of us across the UK still carry our Personal Identification Number (PIN) with our cards. Even more worrying was that a couple of those interviewed admitted to writing their PIN on their actual card.
Ian Corfield, head of Bank of Scotland Card Services, commented: "It's important that once you have your PIN you either store it in a secure place or destroy it completely. If you're having trouble remembering your PIN you can easily change it to a number you can remember."
Worryingly, with the complete roll out of ‘Chip and Pin’ nearly upon us many more people will soon be tempted to carry their PIN with their cards as we will not be able to use cards anywhere without tapping in the number.
The research also showed that a large percentage of us (41% of those questioned) actually carried enough information in their wallet to allow their identity to be stolen if it were to fall in to the wrong hands.
Mr Corfield continued: "Our research showed that a worrying number of us carried more than enough information in our wallets to allow would-be thieves to steal our identity. Fraudsters only need a few pieces of information and carrying it all in one place can therefore be very risky."
Key findings:
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Approximately 700,000 people in the UK carry their PIN with their card.
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Nine out of ten of us carry our debit cards with us most of the time and credit cards accompany us almost as frequently (usually in our wallet or purse).
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Two out of five of us also carry some form of identification in the same place - usually in the form of a driver’s license. As a result a thief could easily discover our sex, address and even date of birth.
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15% of us use memorable dates like birthdays, weddings and anniversaries to help us remember our PIN numbers.
If a thief has all the relevant personal details then they could try to use your plastic to make internet or telephone purchases. To try to stamp out fraud, retailers are generally advised not to accept orders for delivery to an address other than the cardholders billing address.
It is estimated that in 2003 card fraud cost the industry over £400 million.
General advice from Bank of Scotland is:
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Take your card receipts home with you and leave them there until you have checked them against your statement. Then destroy them by either shredding or burning them.
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Never write down your personal identity number. Instead change it to something you can easily remember but other people can't easily guess.
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Try to keep your driver’s license - or any other form of ID - in a different place to your credit and debit cards.
Younger people are more likely than old to keep receipts in their pockets, purses or wallets: 44 per cent of 15-34 year olds compared to 31% of 45-64 year olds.
Younger people are also more likely to have some form of ID - 52 per cent of under 35s against 40 per cent of over 55s. And of those who do have ID, 94 per cent of under 25s have a drivers license against just 51 per cent of over 65s (in this age bracket 17 per cent of those with ID have a bus pass).
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