Identity theft – what do you do afterwards?
I have written this section to help customers with the problems faced when a Trojan has been found on their PC or when they have responded to an unsolicited email by giving away passwords and usernames.
Please follow the steps below to ensure that you do not become a victim of ever-increasing identity theft.
What is a Trojan?
A Trojan is a special type of virus that causes more harm than most. Because a Trojan can potentially grab credit card details and passwords, all activity on your PC can potentially be recorded and passed to a third party over the internet. Of course, if you have not used a credit card or have no passwords or important information stored on your PC then you are not at risk from identity theft. Please remember though, even email passwords can be used to get into your email account and extract personal information from there.
Credit card cancelling
Cancelling credit cards is a necessity if a Trojan was found on your PC. It is not enough to check your credit card statements as much of the identity theft often happens weeks or months later. Most banks will attempt to get a card out to you within 3-5 working days, often sooner. You should do this for all cards that you have used on the PC. That’s credit AND debit cards.
Password changing
Your online banking password should be changed once you have a clean PC. Do not attempt to do this from an infected PC as this is pointless and potentially more risky.
You should change your login passwords for any online stores (Amazon, Ebay etc) and any forums you belong to. This is usually done by logging in and selecting ‘Profile’ or ‘My Account’ and following the links to change your password.
Any remote working passwords you have (Citrix, LogMeIn Exchange Server etc) may also be compromised, so if you work from home and login to a works server, contact your IT department to change your password as soon as possible.
Because of the upturn in the amount of identity theft and credit card number-grabbing trojans on PCs, I have created a list of the contact details for most UK banks. Should you have a bank that is not on this list, please email me the telephone number and I’ll update this list for other users. I have added contact numbers from overseas purely to make this list useful if you ever have cards stolen when on holiday too.
Bank details for cancelling credit cards
Abbey
Lost and stolen cards (24 hour)
UK: 08459 724 724 option 3
Overseas: +44 (0)1908 237963Allied Irish Bank
Lost or stolen ATM/credit cards
Ireland: 01668 5500
Overseas: +353 (0) 1 668 5500Alliance & Leicester
Lost and stolen credit cards
UK: 0800 0688 638
Overseas: +44 (0) 1244 673 700Cahoot
Lost and stolen cards (24 hour)
UK: 08459 724 724 option 3
Overseas: +44 (0)1908 237963Current accounts – lost or stolen cards or cheque books
UK: 0500 31 32 33
Overseas: +44 (0) 151 928 4033American Express
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 01273 696 933
Overseas: +44 (0)1273 696 933Lost and stolen travellers cheques
UK: 0800 521 313
Overseas: +44 (0)1273 571 600Bank of Ireland
Lost and stolen cards (24 hour)
Ireland: 1890 706 706
Overseas: +353 (0) 56 775 7007
Customer Service (24hour)
Ireland: 1890 251 251Bank of Scotland
Lost or stolen credit cards:
UK: 0845 3000 344Lost or stolen bank cards:
UK: 08457 20 30 99Barclays Bank
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 01604 230 230
Overseas: +44 (0) 1604 230 230For existing Cardholder Protection policy holders only:
UK: 0808 100 6667
Overseas: +44 1904 544 666Barclaycard
Lost and stolen credit cards
UK: 01604 230 230Capital One
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 0800 952 5267
Overseas: +44 (0)115 993 8002Citibank
Customer services
UK: 0800 00 55 00
Overseas: +44 (0) 207 500 5500Clydesdale Bank
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 0845 606 0622The Co-operative Bank
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 0845 600 6000
Overseas: +44 (0) 1695 53760Diners Club
Customer service
UK: 0870 1900 011
Ireland: 0818 300 026Egg
Lost or stolen cards
UK: 08451 233 233
Overseas: +44 (0)1332 395 919First Active
Lost or stolen cards
UK: 0870 600 0459
Ireland: 1800 245399
Overseas: +44 (0) 131 549 8186First Direct
Customer service
UK: 08456 100 100
Overseas: +44 (0) 113 234 5678GE Capital
Consumer finance
UK: 0870 125 2515Goldfish
Lost or stolen cards
UK: 0800 281 881
Overseas: +44 (0) 126 856 7402Halifax
Lost or stolen cards
UK: 08457 20 30 99
Overseas: +44 (0) 1133 809 574HSBC
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 08456 007 010
Overseas: +44 (0) 1442 422 929Lloyds TSB Bank
Card queries (24 hour)
UK: 0800 096 9779
Overseas: +44 (0) 1702 278 270Marks & Spencer Money
&More credit card and chargecard
UK: 0845 900 0900
Overseas: +44 (0)1244 879 080MasterCard (phone your bank first if possible)
Emergency Contacts
United Kingdom: 0800 96 4767MBNA Europe
Lost/stolen card
UK: 0800 062 062
Ireland: 1800 409 511
Overseas: +44 (0) 1244 672 111Morgan Stanley
Lost or stolen
UK: 0800 02 88 990
Overseas: +44 (0)123 672 5678National Irish Bank
Ireland: 1850 700221
Overseas: +00 353 1638 5000Nationwide
Lost/stolen credit cards (24 hours)
UK: 08457 99 22 22
Overseas: +44 (0) 2476 438 996Lost/Stolen cards (all cards except credit cards)
UK: 08457 30 20 10
Overseas: +44 (0) 1793 656 789NatWest Bank
Card Loss Centre
UK: 0870 600 0459
Overseas: +44 (0) 142 370 0545Northern Bank
UK: 0870 850 2481
Overseas: +44 (0) 2890 049201Partnership Card (John Lewis / Waitrose)
Lost and stolen cards
UK: 0800 015 0914
Overseas: +44 (0) 121 214 5732Royal Bank of Scotland
Lost/stolen credit cards
UK: 0126 829 8929Lost/stolen bank cards
UK: 0870 513 3550
Overseas: +44 (0) 131 317 8899Smile
Lost and stolen
UK: 0845 600 6000
Overseas: +44 (0)161 477 1927Ulster Bank
Lost & Stolen cards
UK: 0870 600 0459
Ireland: 1800 245399
Overseas: +44 (0)131 549 8186Virgin Credit Card
Lost & Stolen cards
UK: 0800 015 0306Visa (general Visa helpline – phone your bank first)
Lost cards
UK: 0800 89 1725Woolwich
Open plan gold charge card
UK: 01604 230 230Other open plan cards
UK: 0845 0700 360Other Woolwich cards
UK: 0845 677 0009
Overseas: +44 (0) 1255 225 335Yorkshire Bank
UK: 08456 060 622
Overseas: +44 (0) 113 2881403
Thomas Cook
Travellers cheques
UK: 0800 622 101
Overseas: +44 (0) 1733 318 950
Tutorial - identity theft. How to prevent it | A9 Computer Services on Wed, 8th Sep 2010 3:58 pm
[...] have had an account compromised or a Trojan program was found on your computer, follow our “Identity theft – what to do when you are a victim” tutorial and [...]
Rachel Moore on Fri, 10th Sep 2010 12:50 pm
Thank you so much for this guide, I didn’t know where to go next. My bank (NatWest) were not helpful at all.
Have changed my logins and passwords and will be more careful next time I reply to emails.
Amy227 on Tue, 20th Sep 2011 11:30 am
Impressive list, thank you for taking the time to put this together!
Gerald Carter on Sun, 25th Sep 2011 11:28 am
Excellent guide thank you. Changed my bank details straight away
R. Richards on Mon, 3rd Oct 2011 11:35 am
Thank you. Had a nasty trojan virus that led to a debit on my account. I couldn’t find information anywhere for Smile Lost and Stolen cards except on your site. Have left a small donation, thanks again. Robert