The unfortunate truth about identity theft is that it’s not all that hard to pull off. Many of us seem to be under the impression that it’s only the reckless, the uninformed, the naïve or the trusting that fall victim to the cunning traps of identity thieves. But in truth that is not the case.

The true scope of identity theft in South Africa is hard to determine, but it is estimated that it costs the economy around R1 billion each year with new techniques and scams popping up weekly. As technology evolves, so do the opportunities for thieves to get hold of your personal information and with more people transacting electronically one needs to be ever vigilant.

Perhaps one of the most common forms of identity theft today is phishing with South Africa rated as the most targeted geography for phishing emails in June 2011. One in 111.7 emails sent in South Africa has been identified as a phishing attack according to Symantec Corp’s June 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report. South Africa has continuously held this number one spot since September 2010 when it was recorded that 1 in 36.1 emails contained a phishing attack.

While in the past identity thieves were mostly interested in stealing credit cards, maxing them out and discarding them - today’s identity thieves are far more ambitious often using stolen identities to obtain cellphones on contract, rented cars, store credit and even personal and home loans. What’s worse is that most of the time one will not realise that their identity has been used to ring up a string of credit until they are declined from opening an account or are contacted for defaulting on a payment. The end result is an utterly destroyed credit record which may take months or even years to rectify.

Thoroughly examining your statements, safeguarding your passwords and identity number, shredding receipts and statements before discarding them and not giving out personal information over the phone are a few of the techniques you can use to protect yourself from identity theft, but the most effective tool you have is your credit report.

Your credit report is a complete record of your financial history, detailing information on your borrowing and spending habits, payment trends and contact details. It tracks every account you open, every payment you skip, every judgment taken against you and every cent you owe your creditors. Other than following the guidelines mentioned above and remaining vigilant at all times, regularly checking your credit report allows you to immediately identify if someone attempted to apply for credit in your name. You can also identify any enquiries conducted and see who accessed your credit report and when – this can be very useful in predicting and preventing possible fraud.

When you request your credit report make sure you thoroughly scrutinise every aspect. Under your credit history you will find a description of every creditor that reported to the credit bureau that you have credit with them. The information will include the name of the creditor, the date when the account was opened, the repayment frequency, your outstanding balance, your credit limit and also whether you skipped or missed a payment.

There will also be a detailed list of all enquiries that were made against your name. This means you will be able to see who has looked at your credit report and when. These enquiries will usually take place when you apply for credit with a credit provider and they need to access your credit report to determine creditworthiness. It is thus very important that you check that no enquiries were made that you were not aware of as this could be a sure indication that someone is trying to fraudulently apply for credit in your name.

The section containing public records information is also a very important one to examine. This contains information on judgments, defaults and notices and is an indication of whether legal action has been taken against you for nonpayment of credit.

If when you do look at your credit report you see that you have been a victim of identity fraud immediately contact the credit bureau that supplied the information and lodge a dispute. You can do this online at most established credit bureaus such as Compuscan by simply filling out a form. The National Credit Act (NCA) provides consumers with the right to dispute incorrect information on their credit report and to have this information corrected. Once you have lodged a dispute with the credit bureau they have 20 business days to investigate the dispute according to the NCA. If after this time they have not done so or you are not happy with the outcome you can contact the Credit Information Ombud. Logging a dispute with Compuscan is free of charge thus it is in your best interest to contact them rather than one of the many “Credit Clear” companies that charge money for doing something that you could do for free.

To ensure that you do not fall victim to identity theft make sure that you regularly check your credit report – you can do this once a year for free at Compuscan. By regularly checking your credit report you can protect your credit history and financial future from becoming the next target of identity theft.

Compuscan also encourages their clients to protect their business from falling victim to identity theft by subscribing to receive fraud alerts. Once you are subscribed information on fraudulent behaviour, supplied by the South African Fraud Prevention Services (SAFPS), on the part of customers will be brought to your attention via Compuscan’s Credit Check system.

To receive your free credit report, submit a dispute or find out more about Compuscan’s products and services please contact Compuscan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone us on 021 888 6000 or visit our website www.compuscan.co.za