Here’s a warning if you’re currently searching for a job online – a fake job site was recently setup to demonstrate the ease in which fraudsters can get their hands on your important data.
After setting up the website (Denis Atlas), an ad was placed in a national newspaper which prompted job seekers to upload their CVs. In all, 107 people responded to the ad, of which 61 had enough details to enable someone to apply for a credit card. In their CVs were details such as addresses, dates of birth, even National Insurance numbers and in one case a passport number – all useful stuff for cloning somebody’s ID.
The stunt was put together to promote Identity Fraud Week which ran a couple of weeks ago, and highlights just how simple it can be to get people to handover important information.
The moral of the story? Don’t include unnecessary personal data in your CV, and to also take some time to find out about the website you’re submitting your data to – check they’re who you think they are, and give them a call to find out more information if you’re unsure.