7:30am Saturday 20th September 2008
By Hayley Court
DATA protection Minister Michael Wills was presented with credit cards applied for in his name in a bid to highlight the danger of making personal details accessible.
The Swindon MP appeared on the BBC 3 programme Mischief: Your Identity For Sale.
On the programme, BBC journalist Rebecca Wilcox carried out research on Mr Wills digging up a host of information, from his love of historical novels to his mother’s maiden name.
“I want to know more about this man than he knows himself,” she said.
She then used his details to apply for 12 credit and store cards.
They included HSBC, Lloyds, Capital One, Natwest, Alliance and Leicester and Virgin credit cards, a House of Fraser store card and a Top Shop card.
And as if that wasn’t enough, she also wrote a cheque for £133,000,000 in his name, made payable to Richard Thomas the information commissioner, who has been put in place to protect the public from ID fraud.
The cheque came complete with Mr Wills’s signature.
The journalist met with Mr Wills to explain what she had done and to highlight how easy it was to discover details such as his mother’s maiden name, his love of skiing, and his passion for historic novels, yachting and boating.
During the interview the MP said: “It’s terrifying isn’t it?”
After the programme was aired on Thursday last week and again on Monday this week, Mr Wills said the implications that the BBC defrauded him would cause concern to Adver readers.
“The BBC programme was wrong to imply that their creation of credit cards in my name left me more vulnerable to crime,” he said.
“The Banking Code makes it clear that unless someone acts fraudulently or without reasonable care, which was not the case here, they will not be liable for losses caused by someone else.”
Mr Wills went on to explain: “To have taken out the credit cards, which the BBC did not, and to use them would have been serious criminal offences, as the BBC did acknowledge.”
To help protect against abuse of identity details, members of the public can contact CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service about their Protective Registration service.
Once registered, if anyone applies to a CIFAS member using his details to obtain a financial service, that CIFAS member will automatically be alerted that the person registered is concerned about the risk of identity fraud and that his personal details may be used to make fraudulent applications for goods and services.
Visit www.cifas.org.uk or write to CIFAS at PO Box 1141, Bradford, BD1 5UR.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk