Moving home? You could be putting yourself at risk to Fraudsters!

Are you at Risk?

A study from the Royal Mail advertising their redirection service has suggested that more than 450,000 home movers a year are putting themselves at risk of identity fraud by not quickly telling companies they are moving. 

The study discovered that up to 23 per cent of home movers in the UK take two weeks or longer to inform their credit card provider of a change of address. This means potentially confidential information could be delivered to an individual’s old address and into the wrong hands.

Latest figures available show that there were over two million home moves in the UK between April 2009 and March 2010. So 23 per cent equates to 450,000 movers who ran the risk of personal financial information being delivered to their previous address.

The study also found that almost one in five people did not tell their bank (18.5 per cent), insurance company (20 per cent) or council (21 per cent) of a change of address for two weeks or more after a move.

But utility companies received a quicker response with 84 per cent of people telling them of a change of address in less than a fortnight after a move.

Keith Jones, head of data strategy at Royal Mail, said: “Home movers run the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft by failing to inform companies about a new address as quickly as possible.

“The UK has seen a nine per cent year-on-year increase in identity theft in the UK, so this is a very real concern for many home movers.”

We have added a reminder to all our clients that move home to change addresses on everything with a check list the day before completion. We suggest whether you are our client of ours or not that you do the same.