20% CVs contain the information enough for Identity theft

According the recent survey conducted in the frame of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week (6-12 October 2008) by iProfile company, the Metropolitan Police and the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) the most part of the unemployed people take a risk of loosing the last money. And it will be the lesser of all evils. 

The companies have conducted an experiment during which they have placed a job advertisement in one national paper for a bogus company called Denis Atlas. By the way if to look closer one can see that the company name is an anagram of “steal an ID”. At the same time the companies have launched a site where the openly told that it was just an experiment but nevertheless by the end of the week the so-called employers received 107 (!) CVs full of personal information, including the sensitive one.

Having analyzed all the received CVs the specialists concluded that 68% of people even haven’t checked the background of the company where they applied for a job. 

• 61 CVs (57%) included a date of birth, despite this no longer being a requirement due to age discrimination laws
• 98 (91.5%) included a full address
• 20 (19%) put others at risk by providing full details of references
• One CV even included the applicant's passport number and national insurance details

“Typically, criminals need just three out of fifteen key pieces of information to commit identity fraud. The average CV received as part of the research project contained eight pieces of information,” said iProfile specialists.

After the experiment the company has safely destroyed all CVs they received without sharing the data included. The company also has assured that no respondent to the job ad would be identified in any way. 

Finally the company has published some tips that can be useful for all those who apply for a job:

• Be wary if the email address does not contain the name of the company but just the name of a service provider.
• Take extra care when accessing personal information when using public computers, such as those in internet cafes, or when using a laptop in a WiFi hotspot.
• Shred or destroy old copies of your CV.
• Rather than using a traditional CV, think about using an iProfile - a free online CV service that helps safeguard your personal details.
• Use a phone masking service to protect your personal number. With an iProfile you get phone masking, and it costs you nothing.

Think about who you share your career information with, make sure they are a real business and when posting your information to the web or on a job board database, remember to use an Internet Safe CV:

• Do not include your date of birth
• Do not include your marital status
• Do not include your place of birth
• Only give your first and last name
• Use a telephone masking service so you don't publish your private phone numbers

Think about the information a potential employer needs to find your details, you can share your full CV at a later stage when you are comfortable with the identity of the company or person you are sharing the information with.