Last year, over 6000 Dutch citizens reported identity fraud incidents to the Central Reporting Center for Identity Fraud (CMI), announced Minister Adriaansens of Economic Affairs. The news surfaced as she responded to parliamentary questions regarding identity fraud linked to online contract agreements.
This follows reports from the TV program ‘Radar‘, highlighting incidents where fraudsters had exploited other individuals’ identities to set up contracts with Energiedirect and subsequently used significant amounts of energy. The victims of these fraudulent activities were unfairly burdened with the responsibility of payment.
“In general, data related to identity fraud cases are not centrally collected, hence we lack overall statistics. Moreover, fraud cases are often intricate, involving various phenomena like misuse of identity card copies, creation of fake profiles, and orders placed under someone else’s name,” Adriaansens explained.
She emphasized that victims of identity fraud should report these incidents to the CMI. The CMI received over 6100 reports in 2022, showing a slight decrease from the 6400 reported in 2021. Of the reports received last year, 1100 involved fraudulent orders made using the victim’s information, down from 1760 in the previous year.
Zooming into fraudulent energy contracts, there were 23 reports in 2022, compared to 49 in 2021. According to Minister Adriaansens, awareness of risks and preventive measures are key in countering all forms of fraud and deception.
She stressed, “In the case of identity fraud involving consumer purchases, it’s crucial that business owners are aware of the importance of identity verification.”
