Security & Privacy
What are your Terms and Conditions?
What is ID theft?
Identity theft is where someone has obtained your personal details without prior knowledge or consent, with intent to obtain goods and services in your name. Unfortunately, it is one of the fastest growing crimes in the UK and anyone is at risk.
Identity theft occurs more commonly offline, but can occur through online activity.
What can I do if I think I have been a victim of ID theft?
1. Contact our Customer Services, where you will be assigned a personal case worker who will deal with the matter for you.
2. Apply for a copy of your personal credit report to ensure there are no unknown transactions or applications. You can apply for your credit file from the following agencies:
Equifax PLC
Credit File Advice Centre
PO Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US
Tel: 0844 335 0550
Experian Ltd
Consumer Help Service
PO Box 9000
Nottingham
NG80 7WP
Tel: 0844 481 8000
Callcredit Ltd
Consumer Services Team
PO Box 491
Leeds
LS3 1WZ
Tel: 0870 060 1414
Where can I get further information on ID theft?
CIFAS
6th Floor,
Lynton House
7-12Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9BQ
www.cifas.org.uk
Home Office Identity theft page
www.identitytheft.org.uk
How can I prevent my identity from being stolen?
Ensure all your personal details are kept confidential. Avoid giving them out easily and store them in a secure location.
Avoid giving payment card details over the phone, if possible always use a secure payment facility.
Destroy documents such as bank and other credit statements, household bills and receipts that may show your name, or other personal details.
Make sure that you thoroughly check through statements from the bank, building society or credit cards for unknown transactions.
Fully close accounts that you no longer want to use, and change the addresses on them when you move.
How do I identify spoof emails?
You may receive emails claiming to have been sent by us with subjects such as:
'Your account has been suspended' or 'Online account expired?'
Usually, these emails have not been sent by us and are actually forged. They’re designed to encourage you to click the links in them and to log in to your account.
These emails are known as phishing emails and use genuine company logos and addresses to look and feel like they’ve come from the company. The links in these emails usually direct you to a fake login page, which looks exactly like the real login page. If you log in, your account details are stolen and may be used to access your account or commit fraud.
Should you receive a suspicious email claiming to have been sent by us, you can forward it to our Customer Service team where one of our online security team will check its validity. If it’s a phishing email we'll investigate further. When forwarding suspicious emails, please don’t change the subject in the email as this can be useful to us. If possible, please attach the email to a new email and submit it to us.
Please don't click on any of the links in the suspicious email as the purpose of the email is to guide you to a website in order to collect personal information and commit identity theft or other crimes.
If you've entered, or suspect you may have entered, your account details into a phishing website, please follow the information on the 'What can I do if I feel I have been the victim of identity theft' section.