Experian's CreditExpert joins the fight on ID fraud

by Staff,, Brand Republic 25-Sep-03, 07:00

LONDON – Experian's recently launched online credit report email and SMS alert service for UK consumers is set to become a significant tool in the fight against identity fraud.

The new service, the first of its kind in the UK, alerts consumers when important changes have taken place on their credit report, which they can access online to determine if the changes are an early indication of fraud.

Richard Fiddis, Experian's chief operating officer for the UK and Ireland, said: "Identity fraud is the fastest-growing type of fraud in the UK. More than 32,000 cases of identity theft were identified in the UK in 2002, double the number of the previous year."

Identity theft costs the UK £1.3bn a year, but is not yet a crime in the UK. Experian says its own research last year into the relatively recent phenomenon of "bin raiding" showed that people's dustbins make rich pickings for identity thieves, with one in five bins containing enough personal information to make identity theft possible.

"Consumers signing up to CreditExpert will be made aware of potentially fraudulent activity far more quickly than had been possible previously. The result is that lenders can be made aware of potential fraud early, which will reduce losses and let them better help consumers to correct their files following identity fraud," Fiddis said.

In the US, online credit monitoring is well established and Experian has more than 1.5m subscribers to its service.

As soon as a CreditExpert user receives an email or SMS alert message to inform them of important changes to their credit report, they can link to CreditExpert to gain online access to their full and up-to-date credit report to see exactly what changes have taken place.

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