It Happened To Me: True Stories of Identity Fraud

According to a recent Equifax Study, business managers and executives are the most targeted group for ID thieves, proving that even the most meticulous working professionals can fall victim and soon find themselves combating damage done to their credit and customer service reputation.

For the 2010 National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, we're looking for people to come forward to act as case studies and share their stories of identity fraud. National Identity Fraud Prevention Week aims to make businesses and consumers aware of the dangers of identity fraud and true-life cases are the most powerful tool in achieving this. Your story could prevent someone else from having their identity stolen

Business owners share their stories below:

 "Stuart" ran his own coaching and training company for businesses. He had his wallet stolen whilst attending a training course in Northampton. It took four months to get his identity back and deal with the repercussions of the crime. In addition, Stuart had to go away for a business trip the day after the incident, and had to borrow money to fund it.

"Marc," a 22-year-old  assistant manager with a financial institution in Manchester, never gave much thought to identity fraud until he received an email last November from Alliance & Leicester telling him that his 'application for a credit card was being processed'. Marc hadn't applied for a credit card so he contacted A&L, who immediately cancelled the application. Unfortunately the criminal - who had got hold of Marc's date of birth, email and postal addresses among other bits of key information, such as his salary - had applied for other loans and cards and Marc continued to receive emails alerting him to new applications under his name.

To find out more about Stuart and Marc, and to hear more stories, visit our real life identity fraud stories section.

Click on the comment field below to share your personal story and lessons learned.