This week’s ABC Four Corners program Your Money and Your Life on cyber-fraud has raised public consciousness on the issue.

In particular, allegations that personal and financial details of some customers of Switch Mobile were being sold from a call centre in India have resulted in an announcement by the Privacy Commissioner that she will investigate allegations Switch Mobile and One Touch Solutions (Switch’s telemarketer) breached the Privacy Act through the misuse of personal details obtained from their customers.

On the topic of identity theft the Commissioner said:

"Generally, people who are concerned about how to protect their
personal information when conducting business over the phone or on the
internet can consider taking the following steps:

• deal with businesses that have a clear Australian connection, and be sure you can contact them if you have any concerns;
• only give out personal information that is relevant to the transaction;
• if you’re not sure why some personal information is being requested, ask the business to explain why it is necessary;
• if you think your personal information has been mis-used, contact the business;
• If that doesn’t produce satisfactory results, you can then complain to her Office.

More information about identity theft, how to avoid being a victim,
and what to do if you think you are a victim of identity theft, is
available in the Attorney-General’s Department ID theft prevention kit."

Speaking recently at a conference on a national identity security strategy the Commissioner said

• Identity theft has significant costs to the economy (estimated at $1.1B per year). It also has large personal cost for the victims of identity theft.
• US researchers estimate that the victims of identity theft will spend anaverage of 600 hours (that is 25 days) clearing up their credit problems and checking the accuracy of their personal information.