Personal identity theft is viewed as a serious offence and if you are victim to this, you should waste no time in reporting it to the relevant authorities.

This type of theft is when a fraudster, often online offenders nowadays, obtains your personal identity and financial information to make unauthorised transactions on purchases and to remotely remove money from your bank accounts.

If you are a victim of this type of crime you can be left with a damage to your credit and finances. So that cybercriminals don’t target any more unsuspecting victims, waste no time in reporting it.

There are various ways to take action if you know or even suspect private data relating to your identity has been accessed by an unknown source.

Document it

If you suspect that your personal details are being compromised, then document it, including the date it happened and where you think a fraudulent transaction has taken place. If you receive a bill, online or through the post, for a credit card that you don’t own, don’t discard this vital piece of evidence.

Keep track

Not all of us keep a regular check on all our debit and credit card transactions, which makes it easy for personal identity theft to take place. It only takes a few minutes of your day to check that all the transactions that appear on your bank or financial institution cards have been made by you.

Use the fraud line

If you are absolutely sure that fraud has been committed on your account, it is time to act. All banks have a fraud line, and these are open 24 hours a day. This is a good number to save in your contacts even if you haven’t experience fraud on your account. Making it easily accessible is going to relieve the stress when your personal identity details have been compromised.

Freeze it

Once you have contacted your bank to report the fraud, they will freeze the account. There are those of us who dread this procedure because we think we won’t have access to funds. You shouldn’t worry, because banks, especially a bank that has your current account, will provide emergency funds until they are able to unfreeze your account. Your card will be stopped too, and you might have to wait a few days for a new one, although some banks like Barclays and Metro issue new cards at their branches, which you can collect on the same day.

Call 101

If your ID has been stolen, you should contact not only your bank or credit card company, you should report it to your local police on the non-emergency number 101. They will give you a case number, which you can use if you have to make an insurance claim.

Tell Experian

This credit reporting agency has a Victim of Fraud support team to help customers clear up their credit reports once they have been subjected to personal identity fraud .They will help with your dispute on fraudulent information and deal with the lenders direct. Once your information has been confirmed as fraudulent then the lender will remove you from the report.