First, they go through your garbage and retrieve old bank statements. Then they call you, posing as an official from your bank, and ferret out your personal details. Before you know it, your identity has been poached.
Welcome to the world of identity theft.A recent study pointed out that one of the many things Malaysians feared the most was identity theft. The study in June by technology services and solutions company, Unisys, sampled a group of 890 people aged 18 to 64 in Peninsular Malaysia. Called the Unisys Security Index, it focused on four areas of concern — national security, financial security, Internet security and personal security.
While overall security worries among Malaysians stood at a moderate index of 174 out of a possible 300, certain specific areas were more troubling.Sixty-three per cent claimed to be extremely concerned about Malaysia’s national security in relation to war or terrorism, while 56 per cent said they were very worried about their personal safety.Just over half the people quizzed said they were afraid about their ability to meet essential financial obligations.However, the top two worries among the respondents were identity theft and credit card fraud. Seventy-five per cent polled claimed it to be their primary concern.
However, despite being worried about identity theft and credit card fraud, only 41 per cent of people actually exercise the most basic discipline of destroying their bank statements, bills and other items containing personal information before throwing them into the garbage. This is in contrast to the findings which show that most people are concerned about unauthorised access or misuse of their personal information and 34 per cent of people never read the privacy policies of banks, companies or government departments they had dealings with.Almost one-third of Malaysians used "easy to remember" numbers, like their birthdays, as PIN codes.
Malaysian identity theft victims spend an average of RM808 and 175 hours working to repair the damage to their credit profile.They also faced a range of credit-related problems when trying to cash cheques, obtain loans or even rent a house.Destroy sensitive documents before throwing them away and try to opt for electronic statements instead of hard-copy statements. Keeping personal mailbox locked is the first line of defence against financial fraud and identity theft. Have a personal mail held at the post office if you are going on holiday. Consumers should keep track of the date on which their mail arrived so that they would be aware if it was stolen. They should also check their account balances regularly, choose PIN numbers which cannot be easily guessed, keep updated credit reports on their personal history and always insist on identity verification from people seeking personal information
