Worried I have been victim of Identity Theft, Please Help

Killua

So I am a university student on summer holidays and have been applying for summer jobs. I applied for a seemingly harmless advert on gumtree a few weeks ago - sent in CV with full name and (stupidly) full address. Was contacted by a guy yesterday about the job and basically it ended up with me stupidly emailing him a photograph of my passport. A few hours later and no response I started getting suspicious, tried calling back and heard nothing since. Now they have my full name, address and photo of my passport. Pretty certain they may attempt some kind of ID theft.

So far I have:
1) Reported with action fraud and got crime reference number
2) Applied for Cifas 2 year protective registration (£20)
3) Signed up to noddle.co.uk (action fraud recommended this) to monitor credit report, called CallCredit who also advised I request a notice of correction password (requested - awaiting response)
4) Contacted by bank to add a note to my account that personal details may have been compromised incase any fraudster tries anything
5) Tried to sign up to Experian - says further checks needed so not complete yet. Called them who said that the credit report service is £14.99/month, but told me that a statutory report is free and gets you the same thing so I will probably do this regularly instead. I can also set up password protection like noddle.

Question is:
Anything else I should/can do?
I also contacted passport office - the guy sounded pretty unsure but said I should consider renewing my passport - should I? (don't really want to spend another £75 though)
Should I monitor statutory credit reports from Noddle, Experian, and Equifax monthly? weekly?

Sorry for all the questions as this is all new to me and i'm worried I will be out of pocket or some dodgy loan shark might come knocking at my door..

Thanks for your help!

[Deleted User]

Gumtree? The selling site? Why would you apply for a job on there? Alarm bells are instantly ringing for me.

Have you looked for the company name on Companies House?

Killua

Hi !!!, thanks for the reply. Yes I know its known as a selling site, but it also has a job section with a lot of jobs that seem student appropriate so I thought I'd try my luck - have also read about people getting jobs from there no problem before. It was an honest and stupid mistake, I admit that. I got excited in hope for a job and didn't think straight.

There wasn't a company name listed at the time, I didn't really think anything of it nor knew much about identity theft.

Killua

Also, I am trying to sign up to MSE Credit Club so I can access Experian credit report, the minimum value I am allowed to enter for annual income is £1000, I currently have no annual income (student relying on student loans which don't count). I can't put £0 - help?

[Deleted User]

What was the domain name in the email address?

Killua

It was a gmail domain.

[Deleted User]

Instant alarm bells again there

Feedback_2018

Do you have the job post on Gumtree to hand? Perhaps post it here or send to me privately.

PixelPound

Killua wrote: »

Also, I am trying to sign up to MSE Credit Club so I can access Experian credit report, the minimum value I am allowed to enter for annual income is £1000, I currently have no annual income (student relying on student loans which don't count). I can't put £0 - help?

Why don't student loans count? The income is only used your giving you advice on CC, so simply put the minimum or what you got for SL.

Under GDPR you can get statutory reports for free. So you can get one from experian, though they insist on posting out a code that you then use to access the report online (or they can simply post out the report).
Equifax will give you your free stat report instantly online (You can get report plus score free from clearscore).

You don't need to give income details for statutory reports, the "free sites" use info to better tailor the ads, e.g. which card you are likely to be accepted with.

Killua

@Feedback ill PM you the job advert as it doesn't let me post it here

@nic_c when I try to register it says in the notes for that field that student loans are not included as income. Anybody know how to contact MSE Credit Club admin to ask?

Yeah I will use Noddle, Clearscore, and try to register for MSE Credit Club to monitor, and also set password on credit report. I think this is all I can do?

Shall I cancel my passport thought and renew?!

T-G-C

I completely understand the level of concern you are expressing and some of the actions you have taken are officially recommended in cases of potential fraud using obtained personal information.

Please bear in mind however, finance companies (creditors mostly) can be rattled by this sort of information being passed to them, as the risk of fraud exceeds that of the acceptable level. If you keep calling them up reporting that your information may be used to commit fraud, it could cause protective measures to be taken, which I can't define because it would differ with each lender.

For the time being, I would continue to live monitor using the credit reference agencies and report fraud, if it should take place, immediately to the respective authorities.

The CIFAS protective registration was a good idea, as a lot of people are unaware of this service being available. This should stop instant access to credit, as members will be forced to require further identification before reaching a decision. This will affect you being able to obtain instant decisions, however it is worth the extra layer of reassurance it can provide to you in this situation.

You can renew your passport for added peace of mind, however please be advised that a fraudster can still use your scanned document as proof of ID etc. or to commit fraud using your details. The good thing with CIFAS however in this case, is if the person attempts to open a bank account using a duplicated ID, it would force them to conduct further checks and may prevent them from succeeding, as opposed to without the CIFAS flag.