IDENTITY THEFT PROTECTION INFORMATION

Please find information on Identity Theft and how to prevent it below.

Identity Theft Protection
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Identity Theft Protection

Find out more about ID theft protection in this Info Library. Get an overview and find out more about the topic with our FAQs.

What is ID Theft and Why Do I Need Protection?

ID (identity) theft is a serious crime that affects literally thousands of people in Australia each day. Criminals use sophisticated methods to infiltrate the personal information and data of innocent victims, and use this to carry out criminal activity.

Criminals will use a person's identity to take out loans, personal phones, open contracts on real estate, start new credit cards or directly remove money from that person's bank accounts.

Once your personal data has been infiltrated by a criminal and misused, it can take a considerable length of time – and often money – to recover your 'good name' and repair the damage.

How Does it Happen?

ID fraud can happen almost anywhere in your daily life. Consider a regular day in your life. You may go to the local store to buy food and drinks, you may go out for lunch…how do you pay for those items? A credit card reader, ATM machine or other card payment system could have been tampered with, or you may even have had someone look over your shoulder while you entered your PIN number.

There are countless other ways that your personal information can get infiltrated by a criminal:

You are the victim of online hacking (into your emails/online bank account)
Your mail is intercepted (bank statements, tax forms)
You are the victim of credit card fraud in stores, restaurants, online
Your wallet gets stolen
Your home is broken into

Some criminals even bribe or con restaurant, petrol station or other store employees to gain access to your card, personal details or other private information.