Nearly half of fraud cases recorded in Britain ‘involve stolen identities’

Worryingly, the figures from the CIFAS service show that more identity frauds were recorded as successful. Almost two-thirds succeeded in 2010 compared with 56 per cent in 2009.

This can be largely attributed to a decrease in frauds for those types of products that traditionally have lower success rates, such as bank accounts and plastic cards, and higher rates for areas such as online shopping, where there is less need to prove identity by producing documents such as passports or utility bills.

The organisation says identity fraud now accounts for 47 per cent of all frauds. Other types of fraud include taking over a person’s bank account or savings account to launder money, putting false details on application forms for things such as mortgages, loans or credit cards and making false insurance claims.

In 2010 overall fraud fell by seven per cent to 217,385 in the UK but CIFAS say this does not tell the whole story as fraud overall has increased by 25 per cent over the past five years.

The figures also only represent frauds reported to CIFAS so the real numbers are likely to be far higher.

CIFAS chief executive Peter Hurst, said: “While the small decrease in fraud identified in 2010 is welcome, the threat has not gone away, and it must be viewed in its proper context: as the latest in a series of changes that have taken place over several years.

“This is just as likely to be the calm before the storm, as fraudsters develop new methods to circumvent preventative techniques.”

Figures revealed by the Yorkshire Post earlier this year showed cases of identity fraud – where someone poses as someone else and runs up bills in their name – across Yorkshire rose by 13 per cent in the first nine months of 2010.

Mr Hurst added: “Inevitably, the poor economic situation continues to have an effect on fraud levels. Individuals subject to financial pressures are being tempted to commit fraud such as making false insurance claims or misusing accounts.

“In addition, the threat from organised criminals remains high, especially those involved in developing malicious technological threats to target both traditional and newer sectors.”

People are urged to shred documents that contain personal information; to ensure others are not looking over their shoulder when entering a pin number at a cash machine or store checkout, be careful what details they put online or give to cold callers and to monitor bank accounts to make sure they know what is going in and out of their account.