Research into CV ID fraud
In a controlled experiment, supported by the Metropolitan Police and the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC), iProfile.org the online CV provider placed a job advert for a fictional company in a national newspaper, inviting people to apply by emailing their CV. The advert was run during the National Identity Fraud Prevention week in October 2008. Anyone carrying out a simple web search for the company - 'Denis Atlas', an anagram of 'steal an id' - would have found a website telling them the company was fake. In just one week, 107 CVs were received in response to the job advert. iProfile enlisted the help of reformed identity thief, Bob Turney, to analyse the CVs and discovered that the vast majority contained enough information for an identity theft to occur.
Rick Bacon, CEO of iProfile, said: "With tens of thousands of people flooding onto the job market every week, the threat of CV identity theft should be at the forefront of peoples' minds. Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the UK and sending your CV without first checking out where it's going or masking your personal details is akin to giving an ID fraudster your life history on a plate. We were shocked to find that 68% of people sent their CV into our fake job advert without doing any background checks first."
Reformed identity theft criminal, Bob Turney, said: "Whilst many people now routinely shred things like bank statements and utility bills, they still seem happy to send their CVs to complete strangers. They need to realise just how easy it is to use the information in a CV to set up a bank account or take out a credit card fraudulently."
Typically, criminals need just three out of fifteen key pieces of information to commit identity fraud - the average CV received as part of the experiment contained eight pieces of information.
Bacon also argues that hosting your CV securely on the Internet, using a reputable online CV provider can be much safer than posting or emailing a traditional word document: "Once you post or email a traditional CV, you have very little control over it. There's nothing to stop someone photocopying it or sending it on to others. At iProfile we allow people to hold their CV online in a secure environment. Jobseekers can send a link to their iProfile CV to trusted contacts who can then only access the information by logging in. iProfile holders can hide a relevant section of their CV, to prevent people seeing their personal information and use phone masking services to protect their phone numbers.
Bacon emphasises that choosing a reputable provider is crucial when placing your CV online: "There are many people who just place their CV online in an unsecured manner - for example by setting up their own simple webpage. We'd caution against this as it can expose them to identity fraud. Stick to the established providers who invest in security and processes to protect your information online."
To see the full report and further findings from this research go to http://www.iprofile.org/Career-Advice/Secure-Your-CV/default.aspx