Electronic ID/VA - Convenience for fraudsters?

Mishomeister

Many banks(and othe companies) now days use a method of electronic identification meaning that if you are registered on a voters roll, have a landline in your name you can often apply for an account in branch/telephone/online you could be Identified, have address verified electronically, without having to show any documents at all, meaning anyone knowing your address(there would be loads of people like that, starting with your neighbours and ending with someone, you've bought a pencil from ebay and then that person has looked for you date of birth on a Facebook for example could open an account on you behalf and start to do various things in you name, before you have found out of it such as getting an overdraft on account openning and withdrawin the fund on the counter with a signature as proof of identity, which will of course match as it was him, who has provided them with it. They could also use the acount for money laundering. To make sure you do not find out about this account, they will chose a different correspondese address at account openning to make sure they get all the correspondence, motivating it that they have temporarily moved homes because of leighty Work trip etc for example.

I believe that this Electronic ID/VA system should not be there at all as it allows all the above things to happen. Also a very likely scenario is that someone who has his residence permit in the UK expired but is on a Voters roll can get an account, stating online, on thephone that he is British.

What is your oppinion on this guys and girls?

jonesMUFCforever

You can't use a different correspondence address for bank correspondence at account opening.

Mishomeister

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

You can't use a different correspondence address for bank correspondence at account opening.

But you can change it as soon as an account is open, also even if you couldn't, you can withdraw an overdraft just after an avccount is open, before a genuine person gets cards by post

coolesticeking

Mishomeister wrote: »

But you can change it as soon as an account is open, also even if you couldn't, you can withdraw an overdraft just after an avccount is open, before a genuine person gets cards by post

I was told by Lloyds TSB when I did open my account this way, all documents would have to be sent to the address given during my application for a period of 3 months before they would update my address etc without ID verification.

I was told also they would refuse to update this over the phone and would have to be done in branch with the required ID.

Mishomeister

coolesticeking wrote: »

I was told by Lloyds TSB when I did open my account this way, all documents would have to be sent to the address given during my application for a period of 3 months before they would update my address etc without ID verification.

I was told also they would refuse to update this over the phone and would have to be done in branch with the required ID.

Well, you could've set up a Royal mail redirection service, if you know that person is away for some time(neighbour went on a cruise for ex.) and yet again Royal mail is happy with an electrinic id .
This also doesn't eliminates the problem wit an overdraft mentionned above as they can draw out the money from the counter as soon as a account been open Some people wit a perfect credit rating can get an overdraft of up to £5000 at accout opening. Finally there are banks with a different procedure to Lloyds, where you can request for a cards to be sent to a different address at account opening or sent to the branch, where fraudster can pick those up later identified by signature, that fraudster has signed at account openning or/and security questions on the system that have again been set by a fraudster.

coolesticeking

Mishomeister wrote: »

Well, you could've set up a Royal mail redirection service, if you know that person is away for some time(neighbour went on a cruise for ex.) and yet again Royal mail is happy with an electrinic id .
This also doesn't eliminates the problem wit an overdraft mentionned above as they can draw out the money from the counter as soon as a account been open Some people wit a perfect credit rating can get an overdraft of up to £5000 at accout opening. Finally there are banks with a different procedure to Lloyds, where you can request for a cards to be sent to a different address at account opening or sent to the branch, where fraudster can pick those up later identified by signature, that fraudster has signed at account openning or/and security questions on the system that have again been set by a fraudster.

Fraudsters can clone your card and spy on your PIN to get access to your money and clear you out.

People with accounts that have been open for donkeys years have had money taken from the account by someone going into branch and withdrawing the cash.

People have input details into phishing websites and then the fraudsters have cleared them out.

Although fraud, nothing from stopping a postman for example knowing a card is in the envelope and waiting for the PIN also and spending on this.

At the end of the day, no matter what security systems are in place - There will always be means and ways around everything that is put in place.

If people are starting to open accounts like this and you find out, then you can put fraud markers onto your Credit Report which means that if anyone does then apply for credit again in the future, the lenders know and further checks can be carried out as required.

jen245

When you open an account online, everything you put on the form, is checked against your credit records, such as time at address and time with your current bank, details of other credit accounts you have etc, so unless its someone you know (very well!), and who knows your financial history, it would be quite difficult for someone to open a account without it flagging up anomolies on the application, which would result in a decline, or the account, if opened, being closed upon "further checks" which quite a lot of banks do, Natwest/RBS's AVU springs to mind as an example.

coolesticeking

Mishomeister wrote: »

Well, you could've set up a Royal mail redirection service, if you know that person is away for some time(neighbour went on a cruise for ex.) and yet again Royal mail is happy with an electrinic id .
This also doesn't eliminates the problem wit an overdraft mentionned above as they can draw out the money from the counter as soon as a account been open Some people wit a perfect credit rating can get an overdraft of up to £5000 at accout opening. Finally there are banks with a different procedure to Lloyds, where you can request for a cards to be sent to a different address at account opening or sent to the branch, where fraudster can pick those up later identified by signature, that fraudster has signed at account openning or/and security questions on the system that have again been set by a fraudster.

When my card got lost in the post with HSBC for example, they said it must be picked up from a branch and they were not happy to give it to me until I took my passport and bills into them - For some reason, even then they didn't really still look that happy giving it to me!

coolesticeking

There is also something called National Hunter if I remember it's name - If you start putting in information which either looks fake or has changed dramatically from your previous credit applications then it could be reviewed by these guys..

Mishomeister

coolesticeking wrote: »

There is also something called National Hunter if I remember it's name - If you start putting in information which either looks fake or has changed dramatically from your previous credit applications then it could be reviewed by these guys..

The whole Idea of this post is to ask if you guys wouldn;t think it would be more secure if people always needed to show their ID, before an account is open, without relying on any eID&VA?

dzug1

Mishomeister wrote: »

Well, you could've set up a Royal mail redirection service, if you know that person is away for some time(neighbour went on a cruise for ex.) and yet again Royal mail is happy with an electrinic id .
.

You would find it difficult. As well as the electronic ID you have to pay with a card in the name of the person whose mail is being redirected