stolen passport

eleni

Hi,

I am a Greek citizen and my passport was stolen last Wednesday. I have reported it to the police and my Embassy. I was wondering if there is anything more I could do to prevent fraudulent use. Thank you very much.

Eleni

N9eav

Probably not. Who knows who might have stolen it and what they would do with it? Was it stolen with a bag and money etc, or just on it's own? If it was with a bag then the thief may have been looking for money. I do not know of any agency that could prevent someone from using it if they wanted to.

Squiffy

Just a thought. It might be worth letting your bank know in case the thief tries to use your ID to get access to your accounts.

Debt_Free_Chick

Not just your bank though. They could possibly use your passport to run up debts in your name.

This might be helpful. For £11.75 you can have your identity protected.

Murtle

that appears to be a really good service DFC, thanks for that, hopefully I'll never need it - but still good to know it's there.

eleni

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Not just your bank though. They could possibly use your passport to run up debts in your name.

This might be helpful. For £11.75 you can have your identity protected.

Thank you very much everybody.
I tried the above but it requires that my address becomes registered as "suspicious". As I am a student and live in a house with some other people I couldn't possibly do that to them. It was just my passport that was stolen when I went to the Council Tax office to provide a certificate; there was no record of my address. I contacted the above service to see if I could just put a warning against my name and passport number, I hope that something can be done.

Debt_Free_Chick

eleni wrote:

Thank you very much everybody.
I tried the above but it requires that my address becomes registered as "suspicious". As I am a student and live in a house with some other people I couldn't possibly do that to them.

As I understand it, it means that further checks have to be carried out by the lender, before they allow credit. It doesn't mean that credit applications will be rejected .... just checked more thoroughly. You could always let the others know, so they can be prepared.

eleni

Thank you. Unfortunately the label "student" is already a burden for obtaining credit and any further obstacle will not be appreciated. But anyway if it helped I would do it anyway. However, the other problem is that according to what CIFAS say, it is only my address that will be registered (I quote):
"CIFAS is an exchange of information between members to protect the financial industry and members of the public from fraud. It is run along strict Rules agreed with the Information Commission and the Office of Fair Trading. A warning may be registered against your home address, which will alert CIFAS members (all the leading financial and other institutions in the UK) to the need to make further checks before proceeding with an application for an account or facility. If a member receives an application for an account or facility using the address they will see the warning and will make extra identity verification checks, including contacting us, before deciding whether to grant credit or not."

I only had my passport stolen, my address cannot be known to whoever did it. I am worried about somebody using it to obtain utility bills and then open a bank acccount, get a credit card etc. I can't see how the fact that my address is registered with CIFAS will protect me from that.

Thanks for all your help

Eleni

Debt_Free_Chick

eleni wrote:

I only had my passport stolen, my address cannot be known to whoever did it. I am worried about somebody using it to obtain utility bills and then open a bank acccount, get a credit card etc. I can't see how the fact that my address is registered with CIFAS will protect me from that.

Thanks for all your help

Eleni

Because if they did get a bill for your name and address and then applied for credit, the CIFAS warning on your credit file would tell the lender that they have to apply more security checks to confirm the identity of the person applying for the credit.

the CIFAS warning does not prevent you or anyone else at your address getting credit .... but it does mean that they will probably have to provide more proof of who they are.

HTH

eleni

I've finally managed to find out that Equifax offers to set up a password regarding your credit file (no charge for that) so that anytime you ask for credit you have to give the password that you've set up; I think that's very useful, I'll try to find out if Experian offers the same service

Thank you very much for all your help everybody