Civil servants have sold the personal details of hundreds of thousands of
people to criminal gangs
By Francis Elliott and Sophie Goodchild
Published: 14 May 2006

An internal investigation at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has found that civil servants are colluding with organised criminals to steal personal identities on “an industrial scale”.

Ministers have been privately warned that the investigation will show that hundreds of thousands of stolen personal details have been ripped off from official databases, often with inside help. Key personal details such as national insurance numbers can be used to commit benefit fraud, set up false bank accounts and obtain official documents such as passports.

The ID theft from DWP and Revenue and Customs databases is currently the subject of an internal investigation, codenamed Trident, carried out in conjunction with the Government’s official data-protection watchdog.

One government figure said: “We have been told that DWP staff have been colluding with organised criminals to commit identity theft on an industrial scale. It is far wider than just tax credits and reaches right across Whitehall.” […]
Independent on Sunday

My emphasis. And don’t let anyone tell you that the biometric aspect of the NIR will prevent this fraud. All that will happen is that they will take your biometrics and substitute them for the identity that you are buying. What the NIR does is put everyones ID in one place so that these people can fleece everyone.

If you dont enter the NIR, that scenario does not apply to you of course.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am and is filed under NIR.