Job seekers at risk of ID theft

Butler - a retired police inspector - is a member of the United Nations Expert Group on fraud, as well as an advisor to HM Government's strategic fraud authority and a director of Newcastle University's cybercrime research centre.

In the guide - why criminals love your CV - Gooday and Butler outline 10 steps that job seekers should take to protect themselves from ID theft.

According to Gooday, people are attracted to put their CV in a number of places online because of the ease of gaining widespread exposure to recruiters and employers.

"Unfortunately many job hunters do not appreciate that this process can also put their confidential data in front of people who will quickly steal and profit from it", he explained.

Gooday went on to say that, when he started the project it was immediately obvious that if they were to produce a meaningful product that was right up to date and addressed all the current threats he needed to bring in an expert: "From the first 10 minutes of discussion it was obvious that Phil (Butler) brought that authority."

"What was particularly important is that Phil understood right away that the actions we recommended had to be easy to follow, quick to implement, low cost or no cost and not interfere with peoples day to day online activities."

The key contents of the guide on ID theft are:

  • What is ID Theft?
  • How does ID Theft affect you?
  • Why Job Hunters are especially vulnerable
  • 10 step ID Theft Prevention Plan
  • ID Theft resources sheet

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