London remains the UK's identity fraud capital, with residents almost twice as likely to fall victim than the rest of the country's population.

The report by credit information firm Experian found residents living in Kensington, south-west London, were three-and-a-half times more likely to suffer identity fraud compared with the UK average.

Those living in London's Richmond-upon-Thames, Putney, Wimbledon and the Kings Road area in Chelsea are also among those at highest risk, according to the report which highlighted the postcode areas most at risk of identity fraud.

Residents in SW16 6, at College Gardens in Tooting, south London, are almost five times more likely than the UK average to become a victim, while outside of London the residents in the postcode areas CB23 5 at Great Cambourne near Cambridge, NN4 5 in Northampton and TS17 5 in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, are four times more likely to fall victim to ID fraud.

Yorkshire does not feature in the country's top 25 most at-risk locations, though Boltby Road at Clifton Moor, near York, is
rated as the region's most at-risk area followed by Chapel Hill
and Thorner in Leeds and Oatlands and Pannal, Harrogate.

The Experian report says the typical victim is aged between 26 and 45 and earns more than £50,000 a year.

Those who rent are also at higher risk because they tend to share mailboxes and move house more frequently, with greater scope for their credit histories to be misused.

The report claims the most common form of identity crime is now forwarding address fraud, where the culprit gets a victim's post redirected to an address where they intercept it.

It also warns that 89 per cent of cases of fraud are not reported to the police and of those that are investigated just six per cent result in convictions.

Helen Lord, director of fraud and compliance at Experian, said: "The dramatic increases in identity fraud we have witnessed over the last few years have coincided with the increasing involvement of organised criminals.

"The rate of identity fraud growth is worrying. Although some people are statistically more likely than others to become a victim, we should all be concerned."

Last year an all-party group of MPs said an identity-fraud tsar was needed to combat the problem which costs the UK economy more than £1.7bn a year.

And this week Shadow Home Secretary David Davis accused the Government of having its "head in the sand" over the scale of internet crime.

A special investigation by the Yorkshire Post revealed at least 3,400 people in Yorkshire were victims of ID theft in 2005-6.

An ID fraudster can run up credit card bills, set up a mobile phone account or even buy a car in somebody else's name by using details taken from diverted utility bills, stolen bank cards, the internet or even junk mail.

In November, the Information Commissioner warned seven Yorkshire councils they could face legal action if they continued publishing personal details online. The paper uncovered uploaded planning applications with personal data such as addresses, telephone numbers and signatures.