Risk of Identity Theft

lhwrandal

‘Royal Mail’ sent me a SMS today prompting me to click on a link to reschedule a redelivery.  I haven’t thought it through and stupidly clicked on the link and entered my name, DOB, address and phone numbers. After I clicked next, the site asked me to enter credit card number.  It was then when I realised it was a phishing site because Royal Mail doesn’t asked for CC number.  I stopped short of entering my card detail and closed the browser.

In this case, although I did not enter CC card in the second page, I provided the my personal data on the first page which I worry there will be a risk of identity theft.  I immediately turned to my Experian Credit Expert to activate the new Credit Lock Feature.  

Is this high risk of identity theft and should I be taking any further action to reduce the risk?

Mark_d

If I receive a text message like this, I would look for anything suspicious in the message - the quality of English and Royal Mail reference numbers in the usual format.  If you click on the link, the thing to check is the URL in the address bar of your web browser.  Were you expecting a delivery?

I don't think you're at high risk of identity theft yet.  It's easy to get the name & address & phone number for a lot of people.  If you look around on facebook, you'll see how easy it is to work out someone's DOB.  If it's not there explicitly, you'll find posts about "happy 50th birthday" on their timeline.  Maybe email address is adam.brown74@gmail.com

I think you're perhaps at average risk of fraud.  Someone could phone you and convince you they're genuine because they know your name, address, DOB.

lhwrandal

Mark_d said:

If I receive a text message like this, I would look for anything suspicious in the message - the quality of English and Royal Mail reference numbers in the usual format.  If you click on the link, the thing to check is the URL in the address bar of your web browser.  Were you expecting a delivery?

I don't think you're at high risk of identity theft yet.  It's easy to get the name & address & phone number for a lot of people.  If you look around on facebook, you'll see how easy it is to work out someone's DOB.  If it's not there explicitly, you'll find posts about "happy 50th birthday" on their timeline.  Maybe email address is adam.brown74@gmail.com

I think you're perhaps at average risk of fraud.  Someone could phone you and convince you they're genuine because they know your name, address, DOB.

Thanks. Yeah I was expecting a parcel and I was not at home yesterday.  The SMS and the bogus website looked very legit so I wasn’t paying too much attention to the tracking number.  Could someone apply for credit if they know my name/DOB/address/phone?

Mark_d

lhwrandal said:

Mark_d said:

If I receive a text message like this, I would look for anything suspicious in the message - the quality of English and Royal Mail reference numbers in the usual format.  If you click on the link, the thing to check is the URL in the address bar of your web browser.  Were you expecting a delivery?

I don't think you're at high risk of identity theft yet.  It's easy to get the name & address & phone number for a lot of people.  If you look around on facebook, you'll see how easy it is to work out someone's DOB.  If it's not there explicitly, you'll find posts about "happy 50th birthday" on their timeline.  Maybe email address is adam.brown74@gmail.com

I think you're perhaps at average risk of fraud.  Someone could phone you and convince you they're genuine because they know your name, address, DOB.

Thanks. Yeah I was expecting a parcel and I was not at home yesterday.  The SMS and the bogus website looked very legit so I wasn’t paying too much attention to the tracking number.  Could someone apply for credit if they know my name/DOB/address/phone?

No.  I think you're quite safe there.  To apply for credit you need a person's address history and some bank details.

I check my credit reports every 1-2 months just to make sure I'm on top of things.  I'd recommend doing the same.  I think it's unlikely you experience identity theft but if it does happen, its good to be on the ball.  There are a number of premium services offering identity theft protection but in my opinion these are a waste of money.