Episode 6 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling ripped off

and you contacted us in your thousands.

You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong

and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.

They should be looking after their customers and they don't.

Loyalty to the customers is a very low priority.

You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money

and investigate the extra charges you say are unfair.

Big companies, big corporations are more into the money

and the numbers than they are about the people.

And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame,

you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.

It genuinely feels like I'm getting ripped off.

So, whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake...

We're here to find out why you're out of pocket

and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money. This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain,

where it's our job to make sure your money stays very firmly

where it belongs - in your pocket -

and that it doesn't become easy pickings for unscrupulous crooks.

But it's not always just your cash that the fraudsters are after,

so today, we're on the trail of the people

determined to steal something just as valuable - your identity.

And, as we'll see,

they don't always have to go to great lengths to actually do it.

But if all of that sounds a bit terrifying,

don't worry too much,

because we've been seeking out the best tips and advice

to make sure that your personal details,

not to mention your savings, can be kept safe.

Coming up, how safe are those contactless cards in your pocket?

Could fraudsters somehow use them to help themselves to your cash?

If these are unprotected,

then the card information can be scanned without people realising.

And how criminals piece together enough personal information

to take complete control of one couple's bank accounts.

How is it possible for somebody

to get that much accurate information for both of us?

Now, it seems that the days when cash was king

are well and truly over.

At the start of 2016, one in every ten card payments was made

with one of these - a contactless payment card.

Just six months later, that had shot up

to one in every six payments

and they're getting more popular every day.

But while for many people,

going contactless is both simple and convenient,

there are still those who remain rather sceptical

and I'm one of them, and after what I found out making this next film,

I can't imagine changing my mind any time soon.

They're quick, easy, and more people now shop with them than ever before.

But quite a few people still have doubts about using them.

Can I ask you if you ever use a contactless credit card

-when you're...?

-No.

-You don't?

-Why don't you use them?

-I don't trust them.

-Why don't you trust them?

-Because I'm of a certain age.

-They're dangerous.

-Why are they dangerous?

Because if you lose it, which I have on occasion,

somebody else can pick it up and just tap, tap, tap, tap. £30 a time.

They can just steal it and then they can use my card

and I can't have that.

A recent survey claimed that one in five people

won't use a contactless card

because of worries that they're not completely safe.

Press reports have been quick to add fuel to that particular fire,

suggesting the simplicity of the cards can make it easy

for crooks to take advantage of them.

And Alan Smith from Kings Langley wonders

if that might be the explanation

for a mysterious fraud on his account.

It was my youngest daughter's birthday

and we decided to take her

and a group of her friends to Madame Tussauds.

When we got there, we found there were hundreds of people

really milling around in various kinds of queues.

And, funnily enough, I had my contactless card in my hip pocket.

I tend to do that because it's convenient

just to reach in my pocket and get it out when I want to use it.

The birthday treat was a great success,

but a couple of days later, when checking his bank account,

Alan noticed a payment which he didn't recognise,

a charge for about £18, which appeared to have been made

around the same time that the family visited Madame Tussauds.

I was concerned and I did ring the bank straightaway

and I was worried, obviously, that more transactions would follow

from the one that I'd already seen,

which is why I spoke to the bank immediately.

Accepting there'd been some sort of fraud,

the bank immediately refunded Alan's money

and told him to cut up his card.

But Alan couldn't work out what might have happened

and how a fraud could possibly have occurred within the half hour

that he and his family had spent queuing outside Madame Tussauds.

He says it was someone at the bank who first raised the possibility

that it could have something to do with his contactless card,

making him wonder if somehow a scammer,

armed with the right technology, had been able to steal his bank details

without his card even leaving his pocket.

I was shocked.

I was aware that contactless cards could be scammed,

your details could be compromised.

I never expected it to happen to me

and witness the fact that I used to put this card

in my hip pocket quite foolishly, in a way.

It is concerning, there's no doubt about it.

Now, when we spoke to Alan's bank,

it told us it didn't believe that this was a contactless fraud

or that Alan's card had been compromised in any way.

It described what happened as a "card not present" fraud,

although it remains unclear exactly how it might have occurred.

But whatever the truth of this particular case,

don't assume that the idea of fraudsters taking advantage

of your card in the way Alan feared

is some sort of far-fetched conspiracy theory.

Because I'm about to discover exactly how such a scam could work

and, indeed, how straightforward the process can be.

I've been asked to come to this cafe here in East London

and my director has given me his contactless payment card.

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do with it

because I don't use these things

but, I tell you what, now I've got it,

this is going to buy me a very large slice of cake.

'Little did I know then that I was walking into a trap -

'one that would see the details from that contactless card

'in my pocket spirited away without the card so much as moving.

'The team told me they were just getting ready

'for us to start filming

'and introduced me to a fraud expert called Gary Fenton,

'who I'd be interviewing later. But while I chatted to Gary,

'I was the target of a not entirely successful sting,

'as Gary brushed his phone against the pocket

'where I was keeping the contactless card.

'Now, it takes more than a few hidden cameras

'and an unusually prompt camera crew to fool me,

'because straightaway, I guessed that something fishy was going on.

'But not yet entirely sure of what it all meant,

'I didn't let on that I'd spotted anything.

'Instead, I went off to buy a drink with the director's card,

'leaving Gary mysteriously fiddling with his laptop.'

OK, so I've been using this contactless payment card.

Tell me how they work.

The card will talk to a scanner and it just reads the information

off the card without necessarily physically touching the card.

This is why I see people with these just floating them

across the top of machines instead of actually putting them in

-and putting in a PIN number, right?

-Yes, it's extremely convenient.

People don't have to remember a four-digit PIN number

and you can literally just tap it on the card terminal

-when you make a purchase.

-But what are the drawbacks?

You see, I won't have one of these

because I think...I think they're open to all kinds of abuse.

Right, you're not wrong.

The information can be read and it can actually be read freely

by a mobile app that anyone could actually download.

The same technology that's built into contactless bank cards

and card terminals is also built into many mobile phones.

It's called near-field communication or NFC for short.

It allows card details to be read over short distances

which, when you're buying a coffee and a slice of cake,

can make things relatively easy.

But it also means that anyone with the right technology

can make their phones act like a contactless card reader.

'I think it's about time I told Gary

'that I've cottoned on to his attempted scam.'

When I met you, you made a point of bumping into me

-when you had your telephone in your hand.

-I did.

You're very observant.

And I do have your card information on my mobile phone

and I can check with you, are the last four digits 6008?

Yes, they are. Let me have a look at the rest of it though.

I'm not going to read it out cos this is somebody else's card,

but you're absolutely right.

OK, you've got the app, I've got the card. Show me how you do it.

OK, if you put the card onto the table.

Phone just needs to hover itself above the card and that's it.

-As quick as that?!

-Even quicker. It took less than half a second.

Gary's phone has picked up the card number and expiry date

from my director's card. It didn't take his name

or the three-digit security code from the back of the card.

And without that last figure, in particular,

you'd be forgiven for thinking that no-one could do very much

with stolen details, but you'd be wrong,

because after he'd swiped them from the card in my pocket

20 minutes earlier, Gary had gone shopping.

I actually went online and made a purchase using your card

and I bought something from Amazon.

-For how much?

-It was just under £30.

-And they accepted that?

-They did.

It went through straightaway and it said to wait for delivery now.

Gary had used a fake Amazon account,

a fake name and the stolen details on the card to buy me a gift,

which was due to be delivered to our offices the following day.

And he'd done it without being asked

for the three-digit security code on the back of the card.

What's especially worrying about that is that he could have spent

a whole lot more because using the card details this way

would not have had the price limit

that you get making a contactless purchase in store.

Why does a company like Amazon,

which must do millions of transactions,

not ask for that security number? That's why it's there.

That's an important question

and I'm afraid you'll just have to ask Amazon

because I have no idea why they're not doing these security checks.

So, we did just that and Amazon assured us

that it has sophisticated and rigorous measures in place

to prevent and detect fraud,

which provide layers of protection

beyond the use of those three-digit security codes.

But for what it called "obvious reasons",

it wouldn't comment on the specifics of what they are.

Now, it's impossible to know how widespread this type of scam may be

or, indeed, if it's having an impact on consumers at all.

But the very reassuring news is that if you're at all worried,

there is a simple and totally reliable way

to keep your contactless card completely safe

and it couldn't be easier to get hold of.

So, I suppose the 64,000 question is

how safe are these things, then, for people to be using?

-And they're being used all over the place.

-They are.

They can be safe if they're used properly. If these are unprotected,

then the card information can be scanned without people realising.

So what sort of precautions can people take

to make sure that their card stays safe?

You could keep your card in a protective wallet or a shield

to protect it from being scanned.

So, for example...

here's a shield here

and you would put your card into this

and it would be protected.

It would be impossible to scan the card

-if it's in one of these little wallets.

-Right.

Now, nobody can read that now with any kind of app?

No, it's completely protected.

If you wanted to make a genuine purchase, you would take it

out of here and use it, put it back in here and it can't be scanned.

Prove to me that that really protects it. There we go.

-Let's put it down.

-OK.

-Have another go.

We just put the phone over it and as you can see...

-Nothing is happening.

-Nothing at all.

Gary's organisation, Online Watch Link,

sells one version of this protective cover for £1,

either online or from your local Neighbourhood Watch group.

There are plenty of similar products widely available

but the trouble is not everyone who could benefit from them will know

that they exist or even be aware of why they might need them.

So, Gary and I hit the streets to start spreading the word.

Oxford Street, to be precise.

And when you're in amongst all these shoppers,

you realise just how simple it might be

for someone to deliberately brush against you

in an attempt to get your details.

They'd have to be very lucky to succeed

but Gary thinks it's exactly the sort of environment

where they might try.

If somebody bumps into you... It's a matter of course here.

People always get bumped into because it's so busy

and they don't think anything of it.

'Luckily, we've got just the thing to keep their card safe.'

Do you, by any chance, ever use a contactless credit card

-to pay for things?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Are you aware of how vulnerable they are

for the information to be stolen off them?

-I guess you're not!

-Yeah.

-Really?

-That quick.

Literally just brushing against you like that and he's done it.

So, how can you be safe?

You can protect your cards

by putting them in a little sleeve like this.

So, will you accept this, with the compliments of Rip-Off Britain,

and put your contactless card in there and protect it?

Thank you very much!

Make sure you keep it in there,

-otherwise someone could steal that information.

-Oh, thank you.

-Do you want one as well?

-I would love one, thank you.

-I bet you do.

We spoke to The UK Cards Association

about the potential risks contactless card users face.

It stressed that...

..adding that...

It went on to say that there has never been an actual case

of card details being obtained and used to make an online purchase

in the way that we demonstrated in our test.

And it was keen to reassure anyone with a contactless card

that, even if someone did scan it in this way,

only information from the front of the card could be obtained

and not the more sensitive details, like the security code,

on the back, which it pointed out is required

to make a purchase from the vast majority of retailers.

And where it's not, as, of course, happened in our test,

were a genuine fraud to take place, then the retailer would be liable.

And if none of that reassures you,

remember you don't have to have a contactless card.

You're perfectly entitled to ask your bank for an alternative

that doesn't have that technology built in.

If you remember, back in the cafe, Gary ordered something online

with the details that he'd swiped from that card

that was in my pocket. Well, here it is.

He said it was a gift for me, so shall we see what it is?

Christmas comes early here at Rip-Off. Right, let's have a look.

What on earth?

What is it? Oh!

SHE LAUGHS

Now, there's clever!

Ooh, blimey, it weighs a ton! Ah, there you go.

It's an electronic safe!

Now, we talk a lot on this programme about cyber crime

and the networks of criminals

trading our personal data all over the world.

We share so much personal information

on a whole host of websites and social networks

that fraudsters don't even need to break the law

to put together enough pieces of the jigsaw to steal our identity.

The repercussions for our personal security are huge.

But we're here to help.

Here's everything you need to know

to make sure it's not YOUR most personal information

that's ripe for the picking.

It's probably your most valuable asset -

not your home or your car but your personal information.

And while individual details like your name, address

or date of birth may, on their own, seem harmless,

put them all together and you've got a bigger picture

that, to a fraudster, could be worth a fortune.

One person who's only too aware of that is Salam Weld.

She's always been cautious about who she gives her details to

and, until November last year,

she thought she'd done all she could to avoid any risk of identity fraud.

I'm very careful when I get suspicious emails or calls.

If they are a bank, for example,

I get their direct number myself and speak to direct people.

If it's email, I tend to not click on the link.

So when, out of the blue,

Salam received an automated call, supposedly from her bank,

asking for an authorisation code for a transaction on her account,

alarm bells rang and she quickly hung up.

But sensing the call wasn't quite all it seemed,

she immediately phoned her real bank to raise her concerns.

When the bank said, "Don't worry", it was a relief,

and that's why I thought, "OK, fine."

The bank confirmed that no funds had been withdrawn

and no suspicious activity had been noted.

But the next day, when Salam was at a petrol pump,

her bank card was refused.

I put another card. It says declined with the same bank.

At the time, I didn't understand what was happening

and then straightaway, I contacted my husband to say,

"Look, I couldn't make a payment. Can you check, please, why?"

Her husband went into the local branch of their bank and was told

that all three of the joint accounts the couple shared had been emptied.

Over £30,000 was gone.

I was very upset.

We had to cancel our holidays

because we didn't have enough to pay it.

We had to basically borrow money from friends and family.

The bank said that all the money had been transferred

into a new account which had been opened under two names.

One was her husband's

but the other was a name neither of them had ever heard before.

Somehow it seems this mysterious stranger had known enough

of Salam's husband's details to enable him

not only to open up a new, apparently shared, account,

but to then transfer into it all the couple's savings.

How is it possible for somebody

to get that much accurate information for both of us?

What's more, for the final stage of the scam,

the fraudster was then able to move the cash

to a totally different account - one that only HE had access to.

At the time, I was just crying

and getting upset, you know, all the time,

and not having the money, not having the trust from the bank.

When the bank investigated,

it sent out new credit and debit cards

but the fraudster wasn't done with the couple yet

or with their personal details.

He'd also found a way to change

the address registered to their accounts,

which meant those new cards went straight to him.

I was so angry because the bank should protect my information.

I just don't understand how they changed our address

and managed to withdraw money again from the branch

and I feel scared for them to know my address.

Every time I go out, I feel like, "Who is this person watching me?"

Now, fortunately, as there was clear evidence of fraud,

the bank did eventually refund all the couple's money,

but Salam's been left baffled as to how the fraudsters were able

to wreak so much havoc, presumably just by piecing together

a few fragments of information about her and her husband.

As if all that wasn't enough,

the criminals almost got away with more money too.

They also attempted to take out a £25,000 loan in the couple's name

but, luckily, amidst all the personal details they DID know,

they were missing one key part of the jigsaw.

They got how long I've been in the address wrong

because they put it for certain years which was wrong,

so obviously they're guessing the information that wasn't right.

That particular fraud may have been foiled,

but Salam's worried these attacks could continue to happen.

We plan to move address but that won't help

because if they managed to get it the first time,

I doubt that will stop them to do it again.

Well, when we spoke to the bank

to see what personal details had been required

to allow all this to happen, it told us that, to protect customers,

it can't discuss the details of specific instances of fraud

or divulge details of its fraud protection systems.

But it assured us that it does have a...

The bank's apologised that Salam and Joe were victims of identity fraud

and said that it's provided a full reimbursement of the stolen money

and resulting costs, as well as an additional payment

for any distress and inconvenience caused.

But however safe you think you've kept your details, you never know

which pieces fraudsters will be able to put together

to get their hands on your cash.

And, as our tech expert, David McClelland, knows,

thanks to the wealth of information about any of us

that's so widely and often freely available,

they don't have to look too hard to find them.

There's lots of information that's available

about each and every one of us online,

so what fraudsters can do is take

these different snippets of information

and then use that to commit identity fraud,

taking out bank loans, taking out mobile phone contracts.

To prove how easy it is for some determined digging

to come up trumps for crooks planning identity fraud,

we've asked David to see how much information he can find out

about these three volunteers - Margaret, Valerie and Janet.

How do you feel about your details being publicly accessible?

Doesn't worry me in the slightest.

It depends what they are, what the details are.

-Not one's PIN number, surely.

-Oh, no, no.

Now, although this is the first time David has met these ladies,

he's already got to know some rather personal details about them.

And that's because,

armed with their names and a rough idea of their age and location,

which we'd sent him a few days earlier,

he's been trying to find out

as much sensitive information about them as he can.

'Don't get me wrong, piecing together this information,

'it does require effort.'

But for those criminals who are willing to invest time and effort

to recreate an identity,

it then gives them the power to essentially be you.

Margaret...

Using only legal means,

David has managed to unearth quite a lot about Margaret.

My details, who I'm married to, where I live, my email.

I'm a committee member of U3A. Interests - yes, that's right.

Studied at Bromley College of Higher and Further Education -

many moons ago!

And then you've got a long shot here -

did I work in France as a financial advisor?

No, I didn't work in France, but I was a financial advisor.

All the info that IS right means that he'd be well on the way

to gathering enough information to start impersonating her.

Next, it's Janet, and though she didn't consider

the openly available information on her too bothersome...

Anything that you are surprised that's on there?

-No, no.

-OK.

David did manage to find out her address,

husband's name and even a photo from their wedding day,

Valerie was a little harder as, of the three,

she spends the least time online.

There is my full name or my middle initial, my address...

-Length of occupancy at my address, which is incorrect.

-Yeah.

And a good thing too. As we saw in Salam's case,

if fraudsters get wrong how long you've lived at your address,

that one missing piece of information can be enough

to stop them from taking out a loan in your name.

Before meeting our volunteers, David had spent just one hour

searching the internet for each of their personal details.

But that short time was enough for him to find

all of their home addresses, phone numbers for two of them,

images of their front doors, names of family members,

what their jobs were before retirement

and even the date of one of their wedding anniversaries.

So, even though we didn't get the full picture of any of you, really,

what we did get, particularly for you, Margaret, and Janet, I think,

was enough information that would allow a would-be fraudster

to start targeting you with phone calls or with emails,

giving you little snippets of information that would,

hopefully, from their point of view,

convince you that they are people

who should be getting your information,

that would let them conduct a fraudulent activity,

get more information from you,

-maybe even empty your bank account.

-It's a worry.

If it's that easy to find details for people who aren't online much,

imagine what you could turn up for someone

who regularly posts information on social media.

And, of course,

it's not just the details WE share online that can put us at risk.

Security breaches at banks, phone companies and other institutions

can also, inadvertently, give away personal information.

Which is why David thinks banks, in particular,

should beef up their security measures.

The security questions are often made up of pieces of information

that are freely available -

things like my mother's maiden name or where I was born.

Very often, it's these pieces of information that are used

to gain access to our most important online accounts.

But David says there are things you can do to protect yourself

and your identity.

First, see how many pieces of your own jigsaw puzzle

you can find online.

It's really important to be aware of what information is available

about you online, so do an internet search for yourself.

Look at family history websites, look at social networking profiles

and see what other information is available

and just get an idea as to how easy it would be,

if a criminal were wanting to create a picture of you,

to impersonate you online.

But there's no need to start trying to delete every piece of information

you find out about yourself online.

Just make sure none of it matches the details

used for any vital passwords.

We are not in control of all the information that's about us online.

Unfortunately, fraud happens.

Sometimes it's impossible to stop it.

The best thing that we can do, as consumers, is to be vigilant,

be careful about the information that we share.

And don't use user names and passwords and PINs

and security questions across multiple sites.

It's like using the same key for your front door,

your back door, your safe, your car.

It's not something you would ever do in real life, so don't do it online.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, a pair of supershredders help us

to test out the latest ways to keep our identity safe.

But will they be enough?

How do you keep yourself secure?

Because it doesn't matter what happens,

somebody will find a way round it.

Every year, we take Rip-Off Britain out on the road

to a busy shopping centre

and this year, it was one of the country's biggest -

Manchester's Trafford Centre.

-Hello.

-So lovely to see you in the flesh.

-Thank you.

Amongst those calling in for help were Gemma and Daniel Pugh.

It's almost their second wedding anniversary

but, as they explained to Trading Standards officer Sylvia Rook,

a key memento of their big day still hasn't arrived.

We hired a wedding photographer in 2014 for our wedding.

And on the day, everything was fine, everything was perfect.

They took the pictures and we had to chase them up for the photographs

to come on an album and still, two years later,

-we've not got our wedding album.

-That's dreadful!

Daniel chased up the photographer by email, telephone and text.

After five months, a CD of some of the photographs arrived

but it was by no means complete.

There's photographs of family members and the bridesmaids

that we remember him taking and we've not got any evidence of that.

As for why they've yet to receive that all-important wedding album,

despite plenty more emails, calls and texts,

well, they've just received a catalogue of excuses.

We were told that it had been ordered from France

and he was waiting for it to arrive and it never came

and then we got told they'd ordered another one later that year

and, again, that never came.

And every time we've been in touch, it's always been,

"The suppliers are not very good" or "I'm waiting on it."

The photographer's website has now disappeared

and he's stopped responding to the couple altogether,

so Sylvia thinks there's only one thing for it.

-So, you had a formal contract.

-Yes.

-So you've got his name, his address.

-Yes.

-Do you know if he's still at the same address? Have you any idea?

-Yes.

-He is.

Right, what I think you're going to have to do now,

you're going to have to sue him.

It's a simple process online

and although they have to pay out an initial fee of £70,

if the couple win, they'll get that cost back.

I'm sorry it's been such a miserable experience

-and it's dragged on for such a long time.

-Yeah.

-I think the problem is you can never get back what you've lost.

-Yes.

-That's the hardest thing. Good luck with this.

-Thank you.

-All right, thank you.

-Thank you.

I think it's given us a bit more confidence

to know what the next step is and how we can move onto it.

Gemma and Daniel have followed Sylvia's advice

and are suing the photographer.

They're reconciled to never seeing their wedding album

but they're very hopeful that they will get back

at least some of the cash they paid out.

Who doesn't like a really good moan now and again?

Well, this is what we call our Gripe Corner here at the pop-up shop,

and all you have to do is just turn up with your gripe or your moan,

we switch on the camera and off you go. Simple.

And not only was it a simple complaint that these shoppers had,

it's one that comes around time and time again.

-Potholes.

-Potholes.

-Potholes.

What really drives me nuts is how I'm driving to work

and there's potholes everywhere.

I was driving along the other week

and I hit a big pothole which damaged my wheel.

I'm quite a keen cyclist, so really, from that point of view,

they're deadly as well.

It's annoying cos I'm swerving

and it's dangerous to me and other drivers.

We pay our council tax

and the potholes in the road are absolutely terrible.

I've written to the council, nothing's happened.

It's a really big rip-off.

All our experts spend time chatting to passers-by,

including Martyn James, who was testing shoppers' knowledge

on the sort of issues he hears in his day-to-day job

at the Financial Ombudsman Service.

He's come up with a true or false quiz,

based on some very common consumer questions.

So, these are money urban myths. OK, guys, true or false.

-Is there such a thing as a debt blacklist?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, there probably is.

-False, I think.

-True maybe?

-True?

-True, yeah.

-True?

-Sounds like it could be true.

No, definitely not. Definitely not.

-There we go.

-He's right. It's false. Good news. There isn't a blacklist.

If you miss payments or you get into trouble with your finances,

they'll sometimes log things with a credit reference agency.

They don't have a list with your name on it

that they share with other banks.

But perhaps it's no wonder that they weren't all right.

In a recent survey by Which?,

three-quarters of people thought that a backlist like this

does exist and Martyn knows better than most

how much confusion there can be around pensions.

So, let's see how the shoppers got on with his next question.

-True, I think.

-I'd have thought, yeah.

I thought you did have to retire to get it cos it's your work, isn't it?

You're working, aren't you?

False. You can get drawdown pensions, I believe.

And the answer is...

False. So, for the state pension, which is 67 at the moment,

you have to wait for that one.

-But for your work pension, you can take it at 55.

-Oh, right.

And you can get 25% of it tax-free

and you can still carry on working and take your pension.

And finally, a myth that Martyn often comes across

and, indeed, catches consumers out.

If you get burgled, can you make a claim

if you don't have receipts for the things that you bought?

False, because sometimes you can have

a bank statement that's like a receipt anyway.

-Yeah, you can make a claim.

-You can make a claim, yes.

You can't have receipts for everything.

So, do you need receipts to make a claim if you get burgled?

-Course you do, definitely.

-Definitely?

-100%.

-100% sure?

100% sure.

-False.

-Oh.

Have a look for photos and stuff that might have copies

of you wearing jewellery or things like that.

Put those into the insurance company

-and they should work in a similar way to receipts.

-Right.

-So always take photos of everything, basically.

-Yeah.

-Less selfies, more photos of your living room.

-Oh, yeah.

Now, today's episode is, of course, all about how our identities

and our bank details are prime targets for thieves and fraudsters.

It's not that they necessarily target any one person specifically,

just that some of us, I'm afraid, make ourselves easy targets

by not keeping our details as safe as we could.

But the couple in our next film pride themselves

on being quite the reverse of that,

doing all that they can to make sure that the crooks

don't have even the slightest chance of stealing their identities.

And if, like them, you're a supershredder,

you might be pleased to discover

that the battle to protect your identity

isn't one that you need to fight on your own.

Do you want to help me with this shredding?

-There's quite a bit.

-Mmm-hmm.

John and, especially, Liz Cooper, are self-confessed shredaholics.

That's got your name and address on the inside of it.

Their shredder is permanently plugged

in the corner of the living room.

Every day, they shred anything and everything

that has their names and address on it,

from junk mail to official letters and much more besides.

That's the lot.

You have to shred everything that's got your address on

if you want to be safe.

So much junk mail that comes through the post

has got personal details on it,

so you have to shred those, particularly name and address.

We get a lot of mail from the hospital and the surgery

and that's not just got your name and address on,

it's got your NHS number and sometimes your hospital number.

We get things from the pension people

which has got your national insurance number on.

It all has to be shredded because it can all be used.

But we've heard from an ex-police officer

that crooks are actually able to piece together

the minute cross...cross-bits of paper

that come out of cross shredders now.

So, where do you stop? How do you keep yourself secure?

Because it doesn't matter what happens...

..somebody will find a way round it.

There's criminals just as clever

as some of these people inventing stuff.

And if Liz and John are careful with the contents of their postbox,

they're even more vigilant when they venture online.

I think the internet has become a springboard for identity theft,

fraudulent selling.

You hear such scare stories on the TV and in the newspapers

about what has happened with cards and internet banking

and all this, that and the other.

And yet people still blindly buy things over the internet.

But actually, Liz might have less to fear in the future.

Some experts reckon that the internet may yet end up safer

than the traditional paper-based ways of doing business,

whether or not you shred the evidence.

Mike Haley from Cifas,

a not-for-profit organisation that helps businesses fight fraud,

believes that new technology could be the key

to finally defeating identity theft once and for all.

Currently, the ways that we protect our identity

are through things like passwords, PIN numbers

and what's called knowledge-based verification.

That is secret questions or words or information that only you know.

But I think these are now being cracked by criminals and fraudsters,

so new technology is coming in play to protect us even more.

And one particularly exciting way it's doing that

is through biometrics,

which basically means we can be identified,

not by passwords, but by our own unique natural features.

The new technologies that are being adopted and implemented

at this very moment include things like facial recognition,

your thumbprint or fingerprint or iris scanning,

and that's protecting people from those who pretend to be you.

It's all very clever stuff and the next step will be technology

that can sense when somebody else is using your phone

or trying to access your account, just by the way they behave.

So, with behavioural analytics,

there is a record on, say, your mobile phone,

of how you normally hold it, how you actually use it.

If somebody else gets hold of your device,

even if they can access through the password, for example,

then that fingerprint that you've left,

in terms of your behaviour, can be picked up.

But to beat the identity thieves,

Mike thinks that in the future, online security will rely on

a whole range of different solutions and technologies.

There's going to be a mixture of different levels

of authentication - maybe some behavioural analytics,

some biometrics - and together,

that will be a better protection for the individual.

So, it's time now to put this brave new world to the test

and see if some of this latest technology can win over

one of Britain's most security-conscious pensioners.

-Hi, Liz. Welcome to ievo.

-Thank you.

-Hi, John. Come on in.

Shaun Oakes is the boss of ievo, a security solutions company,

and is going to give Liz a test drive

of their cutting-edge biometrics.

-OK, shall we have a look around?

-That would be lovely, thank you.

What do you think you need to do now to be able to gain access?

-Put my fingerprint on it.

-OK, fire away.

But Liz still has her concerns.

That's OK, but what happens to my fingerprint now?

It's a good question. We don't actually store your fingerprint.

You cannot reengineer an exact fingerprint

from the data we store, plus it's encrypted data as well.

It's the same technology built into many smartphones and computers

and with banks now adopting it as well,

fingerprint recognition could well prove the most effective weapon

in the battle to keep our data safe.

Every fingerprint in the world is completely unique.

Even identical twins don't have the same fingerprint.

We also have something that you can turn on called spoof detection.

What spoof detection does is checks that it's a real finger.

So, where you see in some Hollywood movies,

where somebody's trying to copy a fingerprint or dust for it,

this would actually detect if it's a fake finger.

So, it's no good anybody cutting my finger off and using it to get in?

-No.

-Good old Liz.

And the more basic type of fingerprint technology

is already on sale for connection to home computers.

For yourself, for identity fraud,

there are already available on the market,

systems where you actually use your fingerprint

on your own PC at home to replace all of your passwords.

So it completely locks it down, it gives you added security.

You don't ever have to remember your passwords

-once you've added this system.

-Well, that's perfect for me

because I'm always forgetting passwords and PIN numbers.

I mean, that's an answer to a prayer, really.

So, it's a qualified thumbs up from Liz.

But Mike Haley of Cifas says that, however good the security in place,

we'll always need to stay on our guard

to be sure that our details are safe.

I think, regardless of the new technologies,

and introduction of new techniques, such as biometrics,

we still need to keep responsibility and protect ourselves.

As for Liz and John,

they won't be getting rid of their trusty shredder just yet.

We've definitely learned a lot and we'll put a lot into action

that we've learned today, but until we can, we'll continue to shred.

If you've got a story you'd like us to investigate,

then you can get in touch with us via our Facebook page,

BBC Rip off Britain,

our website, bbc.co.uk/ripoffbritain,

or email...

And, of course, you can always send us a letter to our postal address.

Now, I have to say I was astonished by that story on contactless cards.

After all those years of being told that they're perfectly secure,

it was quite a shock to see how easily those details

could be used by somebody else.

Well, I don't use one at all but my husband does

and I was really reassured to see

that there is a very simple solution.

So while it's clear this isn't something

that any of us need to panic about,

it probably is worth paying a couple of quid

to keep your card in one of those protective holders.

And, equally, it was very heartening

to see how hard organisations are working

to make sure that all our personal details are kept nice and safe.

But, of course, we have to remember

that it is down to each one of us to take personal responsibility,

whether that's by shredding our bills

or being just that extra bit scrupulous

about the people and organisations

to whom we give our personal information.

But don't forget, you'll find plenty more information

on how to keep your identity safe on our website.

But for now, that's all we've got time for today.

It has been great having you with us

and I hope we'll see you again very soon.

-Until then, from all of us, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.