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Billions lost in identity hijacking in Sweden as the banking system loosing ground ID controls

Monday, 13 May 2013
The controlled identity and banking efficiency that use to be part of the Swedish banking excellence is now in jeopardy as billions is being lost annually because of identity theft.

Buying goods in the name of others is one common way in which 65,000 Swedes were hit last year and were robbed of a total of Skr2.7 billion. Surprisingly such approach in identity theft is weaker in the UK than in Sweden.

Id theft has now emerged as the most common fraud offense in Sweden according to police.
"Identity theft is increasing rapidly both in terms of police reports and applications to us at UC. It is a very large increase," says Roland Sigbladh, Marketing director of the credit rating or checking agency, UC.

Last year alone, 65,000 Swedes had their identities hijacked and they were robbed of Skr2.7 billion, according to new figures from the credit reporting agency, UC and the Swedish police.

"Id Piracy is today the most common fraud offense, followed by false invoices and Internet fraud. Identity theft is the biggest problem we have now," says Anders Olofsson at Stockholm police fraud department entrusted to plan a national coordination on tackling fraud.

The most common approach is that the ID hijacker order goods on the internet in the victim's name. In many cases, the fraudster is applying on telephone subscriptions, debit or credit cards and loans with other people's names, according to UC's survey, in which 775 victims responded.

"It's very attractive to commit fraud in this way, it is more money, less risk and lower detection and punishment," says Anders Olofsson.

"Id-hijacker target creditworthy individuals who are between 25 - 40 years and living in the three major cities. They are also far from having credit history," says Roland Sigbladh at UC.

The amount the identity hijacker loose vary greatly. The average is between Skr40,000 and Skr60,000 but some 14 percent are said to have lost over Skr100,000.

"Society needs to become better at controlling identities when signing contracts, credits and the like, for example, authorities must prove identity securely when people make address changes and notifications..." said Anders Olofsson at Stockholm police fraud division.
By Scancomark.com Team

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