Application fraud rises as credit crisis bites

by Gill Montia

Story link: Application fraud rises as credit crisis bites

Cifas, the UK’s fraud protection body, has reported a rise in the number of fraud cases reported by its 270 member organisations, in the first three months of the year.

The figure increased 10% on the same period of 2007, to 52,286.

During the quarter, cases of lying on application forms rose by 13%, to 21,780. The most frequent offence was one of omission i.e. failing to disclose a previous address where an applicant had a poor credit history.

However, financial institutions now share information to a greater extent, reducing the chance of fraudsters securing credit by this means.

Alarmingly, cases of account takeover, which is when a fraudster impersonates a victim in order to control one or more existing accounts, rose 146% in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, cases of identity fraud fell by around 19%, to 14,567.

According to Mr Hurst, fraudsters are becoming increasingly astute because they have a greater awareness of how lending decisions are made.