Nearly half of financial frauds being uncovered involve criminals trying to use someone else’s stolen personal details, Experian warns. The credit checking company says that identity theft is a “significant and rising threat,” accounting for 46 percent of financial frauds detected this year – that’s almost double the rate of cases seen in 2012 (27 percent).
According to the Express & Star, financial firms are improving their identity theft detection when the criminal tries to apply for an account. Some 25 out of every 10,000 card applications were detected as fraudulent in the first half of 2013, up from 14 in every 10,000 applications in the first six months of 2012.