Now, SMS/e-mail alerts to protect you from identity thefts

Are you worried that a fraudster might fake your identity to wangle a loan/ get a credit card from a bank or get mobile phone SIM card to perpetrate fraud or other offences?

Don’t sweat. Some help may be at hand in the form of an identity theft protection service.

Credit information service provider Experian India plans to bring to its customers the security of a surveillance SMS/ e-mail alert the moment a bank or a telecom company seeks credit information report in their name. “Once you know that somebody is trying to misuse your personal information, you can take remedial steps,” said Vikram Narayan, Managing Director and Country Manager, Experian India.

Damiano Cracolici, Head of Decision Analytics, Experian Services India, said “In the UK and US, most of the applications for credit go to a credit bureau. So if a search is made in your name, you immediately get an SMS about the search….The identity theft protection service is yet to be introduced in India.”

Narayan said Experian has three businesses in India – Credit Information Bureau, which is a joint venture between Experian and seven Indian financial institutions including Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Axis Bank; and wholly-owned subsidiaries for Decision Analytics and Marketing Services.

The identification theft business will see Experian entering the Business-to-Consumer space through a joint venture.

Largely, Experian’s credit bureau business comes from retail and SME segments. In terms of sharing information, a healthy respect for credit bureau has developed and till date no banks have refused to provide data, which is significant development, said the Experian chief.

Observing that application fraud is a growing epidemic, Narayan said, to tackle this problem Experian last year launched a ‘hunter service’ to enable the Indian banking sector to collaborate and share information for early detection of potentially fraudulent applications and helps identify fraud rings.

The hunter prevents the fraud at the point of application and Hunter achieves this without affecting customer service levels and turnaround times.