Protecting credit card details and other financial and personal information should be the utmost of importance for businesses, it has been suggested
Protecting credit card details and other financial and personal information should be the utmost of importance for businesses, it has been suggested.
Businesses are being urged to take steps to protect their customers’ personal and financial details from falling into the wrong hands.
The warning, which comes from Crime Stoppers Australia, reveals that a significant number of Australians are being placed under unnecessary risk of becoming a victim of identity theft due to firms’ poor security practices.
Indeed, the organisation points out that a failure to dispose of documents containing people’s personal details – such as their name, address and date of birth – in a secure manner is making them an easy target for criminals to attempt to drain their bank accounts and run up fraudulent purchases on credit cards.
And with National Identity Fraud Awareness Week taking place next month, the crime prevention institution is recommending that businesses treat customer records, application forms and other paperwork containing sensitive details in the same they would with cash, Broker News reports.
Furthermore, firms were advised to improve their storage facilities, something which in turn could help them to protect their business accounts from being targeted by criminals.
“We know of instances where organised criminals are paying accomplices’ money for every document they find from rummaging through the bins on business premises. The goal is to find personal financial details for use in identity theft,” Peter Price, chairman of Crime Stoppers Australia, states.
Such Australia banking could prove to be of particular interest to consumers as figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed some 806,000 people fell victim to some form of personal fraud over the course of 2007, with a total of $980 million lost. Of these, more than 383,000 were a target of credit or bank card fraud.
Meanwhile, 60 per cent of people claim to be worried about the prospect of having their credit card details stolen, a significantly higher percentage than those who were concerned about the threat of a major health epidemic act of terrorism.
