Wigan woman's nightmare after being targeted by identity thieves

Claire Hannah returned home from work last Monday to find letters welcoming her to a new bank account and store card - neither of which she had set up.

Already around £700 had been spent on the store card, which had been opened just three days earlier.

Since then, she has discovered her details have been used to apply for loans from two companies, one of which was for £3,000.

And three mobile phones and a tablet have also been secured, with one order collected in person from a shop at the Grand Arcade shopping centre in Wigan.

An application was also made for a credit card, but the firm quickly realised it was not genuine.

Claire had a block put on her real bank account and has not actually lost any money.

But the theft of her identity has been a real worry and caused a lot of inconvenience, including spending hours on the phone contacting the various companies.

She said: “I have not suffered any financial loss, but it was unsettling that my data has been used.”

Claire was already aware of the dangers of identity theft and does not know how her information has been stolen.

She said: “I have got absolutely no idea how they have got my data. Usually I put all my post on the wood-burning stove. They said somebody might have gone through my bins because people are doing that. They also said it’s quite easy to find out about people online.

“I want to tell people to make sure they don’t throw anything away with their names and addresses on.

“The worst thing for me was the bank because I have banked with them for 26 years and they haven’t even checked with me.”

Hopefully the efforts of the fraudsters have been scuppered, but Claire fears they could make more attempts to secure goods or cash using her details.

She said: “I think they will do more. I think for some reason they have hold of my name and I think I will probably see a few more over the next couple of weeks.

“This morning I was quite pleased to get something that wasn’t fraudulent.”

Claire has reported the fraudulent accounts to each company involved, as well as Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime.

To report a crime or find out more about how to prevent it, go to www.actionfraud.police.uk.