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Customer testimonials

See how many different ways I.D. fraud can occur in these real-life case studies. Names have been changed to preserve anonymity.

Follow the links in the menu below, to read a selection of case studies.

Online identity fraud

Ms Carter

Ms Carter's debit card was already very late when it arrived through the post in April 2005. She then discovered that her bank account had been cleared of all funds through internet transactions. She contacted her bank and asked them not to pay any Direct Debits to the companies involved. But her bank continued to make payment to one of the companies. No one at the bank seemed interested in helping her. That's when we stepped in. Our identity fraud expert used direct contacts within the bank to make them take Ms Carter's claims seriously. We gave her all the letters she needed to send, along with a step-by-step guide as to what to do. The bank then investigated and has now refunded the fraudulent internet transactions.

Ms Carter said: “I am so relieved that I had CPP Identity theft cover. My case worker was so helpful and eased the stress of what was a really upsetting time for me.”
Identity fraud committed by tenants

Harry Daniels

Mr Daniels owned a four-bedroom house in York that he decided to rent out whilst posted overseas with the Army. He rented the house out to a family for one year with three children and everything was fine - rent was paid on time and tenants were no problem at all, moving out on time as agreed.

Shortly afterwards, however, a letter arrived asking for payment for some expensive electrical items - including a TV that had been purchased interest-free, but the agreement had gone past the interest-free period and arrears were due. Two weeks later another letter turned up stating that if no payment was made then the matter would be put in the hands of a debt collection agency.

A couple of days later another letter arrived from a financial institution asking Mr Daniels to contact them regarding his recent loan application.

At this point he realised that this was much more than a mistake as originally thought. Having previously taken out our Identity Protection policy, he contacted CPP. His Personal Identity Fraud Expert immediately went to work and noticed several applications for credit, including credit cards (one with a £10,000 limit), loans, store cards, and so on.

CPP is helping Mr Daniels resolve the crime and applied protective registration to stop any new lines of credit been opened up.

Mr Daniels said: “The tenants left no fixed forwarding address and police have been unable to make contact with them since. They are still out there and could be doing the same thing to another landlord right now.”
Postal identity fraud

Joanne Philips

When Joanne Philips, 35, a company director from Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, moved address two times in less than three months, the one thing she did not expect was to fall victim to identity fraud.

She first suspected something when a friend, whom she lodged with for a couple of month, whilst her new house went through, told her there was a redirected final demand letter that she needed to pick up from a well-known catalogue company.

“I immediately contacted the catalogue company — a well known high-street retail firm — and told them I hadn't ordered any goods, let alone received any. Furthermore, I told them I didn't even live there any more, having sold the property three months previously, so it couldn't have been me.”

In the end after being passed from pillar to post, having made countless frustrating phone calls and even taken time off work, Joanne eventually hired a local solicitor who persuaded the company that she was not liable. Seven months later and the fraud was eventually resolved.

In June 2006 Joanne received another redirected letter, again from another catalogue company, saying that more goods were in the process of being dispatched to her previous address.

It was at this point, having been a victim of identity fraud, that she took out an identity fraud insurance policy from CPP. After getting her Experian credit report, which helps policy holders look at all lines of credit applied for in their name – and in Miss Philips' case, a total of 11 new lines of credit had been taken out or applied for.

It took a further six months of solid work with the help of a dedicated CPP Personal Identity Theft Expert for the entire mess to be sorted out. Even today, Miss Philips is concerned that more lines of credit could be taken out. As an additional precaution in her name CPP set up Protective Registration via CIFAS, the UK Fraud Prevention Service, which makes it very hard for unauthorised credit to be processed.

She commented: “There definitely needs to be more support offered to victims like me and the people responsible for this have to be prosecuted. Luckily, when I took out my Identity Protection policy, CPP was able to help me sort the problems out, which I am very thankful for, but other victims aren't so lucky.”
C.V. identity fraud

Iain Blenkinsopp

In January this year, Iain Blenkinsopp's car was broken into. His CDs were stolen and a few other bits and pieces, including, oddly, copies of his CV. Iain was obviously annoyed that this had happened but sorted it out and got back to daily life.

A few weeks later, Mr Blenkinsopp got a call from his Grandma telling them he'd had a call and a letter from Norwich Union saying he'd missed an interview with them — but he'd never applied for a job there.

An identity fraudster was trying to get a job with Norwich Union, using Mr Blenkinsopp's name to gain references. These criminals, had they succeeded, would then steal personal customer data in Mr Blenkinsopp's name and apply for credit from wage slips.

He said: “I'm in the process of checking my credit record right now with the help of a Personal Identity Fraud Expert from CPP.”
Postal identity fraud

Michael Keaveny

Being a victim of identity fraud was something that Michael Keaveny, a customer service manager, aged 29, from York, never considered would happen to him.

“In April of 2004, my partner and I decided to move to new rented accommodation. Having seen some identity theft adverts on TV, I knew that it might be a good idea to re-direct my post. I had this done for a six-eight week period.”

Thinking everything was fine, Mr Keaveny settled into his new home and for the next year continued to live his life as normal. However, things were about to take a turn for the worst as he explained: “In May of this year I got a letter from a debt collections agency informing me that I owned them £3,000 from a well-known catalogue company, which initially I thought was an administration error.

“When I called them, however, it became clear that someone had set up an account in my name. What really worried me was that they had done this with just my name and address. The other personal details used to open the account were incorrect, for example, my date and place of birth.”

Luckily for Mr Keaveny, he had CPP Identity Protection. He called CPP's free advice line and was put through to a Personal Identity Theft Expert. Michael continued: “I was able to access my credit reports online and they immediately showed that I had defaulted on a line of credit and had a County Court Judgement (CCJ) as a result.

“It took me over one month to resolve the crime, but I believe this is a fraction of the time it has taken some victims to reconstruct their identities.”
Online identity fraud

Jonathan Smith

A retired professional auditor, Jonathan Smith didn't have a computer in his house — but that didn't stop fraudsters using his identity to set up a store on Ebay selling fake watches.

“The first I knew about it was a very unpleasant letter from an international firm of solicitors, demanding that I reimburse their client,” says Mr Smith. “Apparently the client, who was American, had bought an expensive watch from Ebay, which turned out to be fake. When he had demanded a refund, he'd had no luck, and had instructed the solicitors to recover the money for him. The solicitors' letter referred to emails and letters that had supposedly passed between me and their client.

“The problem is that you can't contact anyone at Ebay by phone or email unless you have an account with them, so the process was very slow. I also contacted the police, but they couldn't do very much. Even they could not contact Ebay directly. I was getting really wound up, and my health started to suffer. Eventually the stress caused me to have a bad asthma attack and I had to go to hospital.

“Finally, the solicitors accepted that I had not sold the watch to their client, and apologised for causing me such distress. The experience has made me extremely cautious. Then I found out about CPP Identity Protection and I quickly signed up for a policy. You just never know when it could happen again, so it's best to take precautions.”
Credit card identity theft

Mrs Berryman

Rosie came to 65-year-old widow Mrs Berryman's house frequently to chat and run the occasional errand. But over the years, Rosie had gathered personal information from Mrs Berryman and taken out credit cards in her name.

Luckily, Mrs Berryman had bought Identity Protection. We stepped in quickly and assigned Mrs Berryman a case worker who helped her to apply for further credit reports, and advised her to get in touch with all her banks and credit card companies to alert them to the fraud. Our identity fraud expert wrote letters on Mrs Berryman's behalf to send to credit reference agencies, banks and finance companies, and set up a preventative fraud alert with CIFAS, the UK's leading fraud prevention service. We also helped to interpret the credit reports for Mrs Berryman.

Mrs Berryman comments: “It has been a very worrying time for me and my family. I can't believe how easily it happened, and to someone like me who is so careful. I can see that ID fraud can happen to anyone.”

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