Staffordshire office supplies firm, Fenns is supporting a national initiative to help prevent identity fraud and is warning local businesses to ensure they are taking effective measures.

National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, taking place 18th-24th October 2010, is the UK's only nationwide awareness campaign designed to help both the public and businesses protect themselves from identity fraud, one of the UK's fastest growing crimes. 

Research commissioned by manufacturer and marketer of workspace products and solutions, Fellowes for this now annual event showed that whilst people are worried about the risks of identity fraud, over 21 million of us are simply not doing enough to protect our identities and ID Fraud costs the UK economy over £1.2 billion annually with 40% of businesses throwing away information on their customers.  So, office supplies firm Fenns are offering a whole host of ways to help businesses to prevent fraud from highlighting the need to shred with special offers on shredders to advice on how local businesses can take steps to protect themselves

There is also a link on the Fenns website www.fenns.co.uk to a special website that has been designed to help businesses understand how identity fraud occurs and people can download a free guide to "Protecting Your Identity" or they can take an online "Identity Fraud - Are You At Risk? Test" to assess how safe their identity really is.

Fenns Commercial Director Louise Harris comments: "Fenns fully support this initiative and believe all local businesses should take the opportunity not only during this week but each day to look at their business and ensure they are taking effective measures to protect themselves against fraud.  National Identity Fraud Prevention Week is an initiative launched by leading UK organisations: Fellowes, Metropolitan Police, CIFAS, Federation of Small Businesses, Callcredit, Experian, Equifax, Crimestoppers, Identity and the Passport Service.

Criminals use a mixture of ways to acquire the information needed to steal another's identity. These range from the very crude such as taking personal information from a stolen purse or wallet, going through rubbish, phishing or stealing somebody's identity online.  For a business it is important to shred important information and dispose of confidential waste appropriately.

Bins tend to be seen as a bigger risk to customer details than computer systems or document theft and businesses don't always realise that they can be penalised severely including a fine of up to £500,000 for companies that lose data.  Our message is shred and protect yourselves."