Are you making it easy for criminals?

Posted in 'Identity Theft' by Barry Stamp

17 November 2011

When an identity thief steals your purse or wallet, they’ll know that in approximately one third of all cases they’ll find your PIN written somewhere amongst your belongings. There’s a 20% chance you’ll have it stored on your mobile phone, and a 12% chance you’ve written it somewhere – on a piece of paper, in a diary, on the back of a photo; somewhere that they’ll discover within minutes.

If he’s unlucky enough to find that you don’t do this, he’ll know a quarter of you use a number constructed from a date of birth or anniversary. Failing that, he’ll try some commonly used ‘pattern PINs’ such as 1346, 1379, 1560, 1597, 1593, 1793, 1937, 1973 or 4679. Or maybe ones that spell words like 2633 (‘code’) or 4357 (‘help’). And others we can’t repeat here.

For some people, we’ve heard of PINs being set to match a life goal, such as moving to a bigger house by 2015. The theory is that every time you draw cash or spend money on a card, you’ll be reminded not to draw out or spend so much, so you’ll reach your goal more quickly. Clever. But stupid. Avoid choosing PINs that start 20xx.

If you recognise any of these methods or numbers, it’s time to change your PIN. A quarter of people use the same PIN everywhere, making it easy for a criminal to cycle through a pack of cards using up three tries on each until he finds the right one. So, try to use different PINs for different cards.

Password disciplines are generally poor too. ‘Password’ isn’t ever safe even if you change the ‘a’ to a ‘4’ and the ‘o’ to an ‘0’. Nor is ‘letmein’, or common names like Thomas or Charlie.

Football club names are also prevalent amongst common passwords, usually followed by the optimistic addition of the number 1 - Liverpool1 being a good example.

It’s best to choose a password that is not a common name or word and instead is made up of a mixture of letters and numbers and also contains a special character from the top line of your keyboard, such as £,%,*

A good way of doing this is to use a phrase where the first letter of each word makes up a password and add numbers and special characters to strengthen it. The longer the password, the more secure it is, but remember that some passwords are limited to 10 characters or so. For example, use a lyric from a song you know, such as Hotel California by the Eagles: ‘Mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice’ – and add a ^ sign after ceiling, and a dollar sign to link the California aspect to give motc^pcoi$ - now that’s more secure than your pet’s name, isn’t it?

Many of us still carry far too many cards, including ones rarely used. If an identity thief were to take just a single card, it’s unlikely you would notice for some time.

Identity fraud is rare but can be costly in terms of the time it takes to sort matters out if it happens to you. You can find out if your lifestyle places you at increased risk from identity theft and get more tips by using our free Identity Theft Check. Or buy our industry acclaimed handbook at only £4.99 including post and packing, packed with lots of advice to help you keep your identity and your card use to yourself.

Or, if you have a Kindle, download the 2011 edition for less than £1 and have all of the emergency contact numbers and details on hand for when you travel. Just search for 'Identity Theft Prevention and Victim Assistance' on Amazon or on your Kindle itself.