Protecting your identity

What is Identity theft and how can I protect myself?

Criminals have a number of ways of finding and using personal information to steal credit, goods or services. That means information like your address, date of birth, policy and/or account numbers and passwords. They can use it to open bank accounts, apply for loans, credit and credit cards and state benefits. They might also use it to access your accounts, or to create fake passports, driving licences or birth certificates.

That’s why we make sure all the information we hold about you is protected. We’ve also created this guide to help you to understand, spot and avoiding identity theft.

Remember to also protect your policy information from family /friends or associates who may know personal details which could allow them to control or surrender your policy.

What to look out for?

Common signs that you might be the victim of identity theft are:

Bills and statements not arriving as expected, or your post stopping altogether.
Loss or theft of an important document like your passport or driving licence.
Transactions you don’t recognise on your bank or credit statements.
Bills, invoices or receipts sent to you for goods or services you haven’t bought.
Statements in your name for accounts you haven’t opened.
Having a loan or credit application rejected even though you have a good credit history, or being told you’re claiming a benefit when you’re not.
Being contacted by solicitors or debt collectors for debts that aren’t yours.

Simple ways to protect yourself

Some simple ways to protect yourself:

Keep important documents, like driving licences, passports, your policy details and birth or marriage certificates, in a safe place — preferably somewhere you can lock.
Don’t throw documents that show your name, address or other personal information in your rubbish bin. Bills, receipts, statements or even unwanted post can all be used to steal your identity. Shred or destroy this kind of document to minimise the risk.
If you lose important documents like your passport or driving licence, report it immediately to the organisation that issued them. If you think they’ve been stolen, contact the police.
Keep a note of the numbers you need to report lost or stolen credit or debit cards, and make sure you tell the company that issued them straight away.
If you change your address, tell us and your banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers as soon as possible. Use the Royal Mail Redirection Service to make sure all your mail is forwarded to your new address until you’ve let everyone who writes to you know where you live.
Be especially careful in shared buildings, where other people might have access to your post. If you think your post is being stolen or redirected without your approval, get in touch with Royal Mail.
If your job means your personal details are publicly held at Companies House, for example if you’re a company director or secretary, let us know. We’ll be able to put extra security in place to protect the information we hold about you.
If you’re giving someone personal information over the phone, online or in a public place, make sure no-one else can hear or see what you’re doing. Don’t use public internet connections to share personal information as they’re not secure.
Reduce your digit footprint. Reduce the information about yourself held online, such as Facebook and other social media platforms and protect by lock down privacy settings so you only share information with people you trust. That way you don’t give information that fraudsters can use for identity theft.
Check bills and statements as soon as they arrive. If you see anything you don’t recognise, contact the company that issued the charge.
Check your personal credit file regularly to make sure it doesn’t include credit applications you don’t recognise or remember making. MoneySavingExpert tells you how to get your credit history free.
As an anti-fraud action, Phoenix Life will only be able to talk to the policyholder or someone who is authorised to deal with your financial affairs via a Letter of Authority or Power of Attorney. Please see our pages on Accessibility and using a Power of Attorney for more information.

What are phishing, vishing and smishing?

You’ve probably seen these terms, but you might not know what they mean.

Phishing is when you receive an email that claims to be from a genuine company, asking you to update or verify your information using a link. The link takes you to a bogus website, where criminals capture the information you enter. If you receive an email like this, call the company that claims to have sent it from a number you have on file or one you’ve looked up. Don’t use any numbers or email addresses that appear in the email.

Vishing, or voice phishing, is telephone fraud. Criminals pretend to be from reputable companies and ask for personal or financial information, or requesting access to your home IT. They’re good at using numbers that appear to be genuine. Never give personal, financial or IT information over the phone unless you’re 100 per cent sure who you’re talking to.

Smishing, or SMS phishing, uses text messages to ask for information. These sometimes contain links or show you phone numbers to contact. Don’t click on the links or use the phone numbers provided, instead call the company the message is supposed to be from on the number you would normally use.

Staying safe from phishing, vishing and smishing

Basically, be suspicious of everything! Even if your email, message or call seems genuine, don’t believe it. Remember that reputable financial companies like ours will never ask you for your login, password or PIN information or expect you to follow a link to another site. Never respond, reply or click a link, or use a number provided in a suspicious email or text. If you’re in any doubt at all, contact the company the message claims to be from on a separate number that you’ve looked up for yourself.

Identitiy checks and why we do them

Like most reputable financial service companies, we have a process to make sure we’re dealing with you, and not someone pretending to be you. Sometimes we’ll ask you for evidence of identification, or to answer extra security questions, just to make sure you are who you say you are. If you have a policy in joint names, we might ask for identification of both parties. We’ll do this even if you’ve held a policy with us for years - so we can make sure we do everything we can to protect you from identity theft.

If you think your identity has been stolen

Act quickly to make sure you’re not held responsible for financial losses caused by criminals using your identity.
Find out which documents or information could be in the wrong hands and contact the organisation who issued them. If you think they’ve been stolen, report the theft to the police and ask for a crime number.
Tell companies who provide you with financial products or services - you’ll find contact details for our Financial Crime team in the useful contact section below. Don’t give us any policy or product information to begin with, just your name, address and telephone number. Our team will contact you.

As an extra measure, you might want to consider protective registration with CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service. There’s a fee for the service, for that CIFAS will carry out extra checks whenever anyone, including you, applies for a financial service using your address.

Who you can contact

These are some of the addresses and contact numbers you might need if you think you’ve been the victim of fraud or identity theft, or if you’d like more information:

Action Fraud

Tel: 0300 123 2040

www.actionfraud.police.uk

CIFAS Protective Registration Service

6th Floor
Lynton House
7-12 Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9LT

www.cifas.org.uk

Crimestoppers

Tel: 0800 555 111

www.crimestoppers-uk.org

DVLA (Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency)

Drivers Customer Service Correspondence Team
DVLA
Swansea, SA6 7JL

Tel: 0300 790 6801