Based on FICO’s recent Fraud, Identity and Digital Banking Report, it is estimated that approximately two million citizens of the United Kingdom may have fallen victim to identity theft leading to the fraudulent opening of financial accounts in 2023.
According to the analytics firm, 4.3% of survey participants had their identity exploited in this manner. If we apply this percentage to the adult population in the UK, it would amount to approximately 1.9 million individuals.
This marks a notable decline from the 7.7% of respondents in 2022 who experienced ID theft for the purpose of opening financial accounts.
In addition, an additional 5.4% of participants believe it is likely that their stolen identity was utilized to establish an account.
According to Sarah Rutherford, a senior director in fraud marketing at FICO, the percentage of individuals impacted by identity misuse may potentially be much greater.
It should be taken into consideration that our data only shows individuals who are aware of their stolen identity being used for financial fraud. The majority of people are not immediately informed about fraudulent activity under their name, or may not even find out at all.
According to her, it’s important to note that a person committing fraud is not likely to limit themselves to using a stolen identity only once. As a result, the level of fraud being committed will be significantly high as well.
The top concern for UK citizens, according to research, was financial fraud at 30%. This was closely followed by credit card theft and fraudulent use at 24%, and the loss of bank account control to a scammer at 20%.
This demands very clear and strong security awareness focusing on Social Engineering to be given to the customers. Regular updates on social engineering attacks and latest trends.
Like Anti Virus signature updates. One customer has a Zero-day attack, they report and Anti Malware company distributes signature for all.
So one attack reported, the organization must ensure everyone is alerted.
