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Almost two million people fall victim to identity fraud every year - costing the UK £2.7bn, according to a report. Criminals gain an average of £1,000 in credit or benefits for each name they steal, the National Fraud Authority (NFA) found.

The NFA said criminals steal more than £1.9bn while around £800m is spent every year attempting to detect and prevent the crimes.

The authority said thieves often try to obtain genuine documents like birth certificates, passports and driving licences.

But it warned they also hunt for utility bills, online passwords, account numbers and personal information many people post on social networking sites.

A total of 1.8 million people are affected each year and, in the most serious cases, it can take more than 200 hours to resolve the problems caused by identity fraud.

BBC sports presenter John Inverdale told Sky News about how he discovered he had been targeted by identity fraudsters.

He said: "I was walking down my street at home and the postman said to me, 'Hello, what are you doing here?'

"I said, 'Well, I live here,' and he said, 'No, no, you left weeks ago.' Somebody had hacked into my computer, had changed my address through the Post Office website.

"All my mail was re-routed to a house in north London - utility bills, which is a key thing for actually opening up credit card accounts.

"As it transpired, I suddenly found myself getting bills from organisations I have never heard of, never mind actually had any dealings with."

NFA chief executive Bernard Herdan said: "Stolen and false identities are a significant enabler of crime."

He said the issue "demands a co-ordinated response across Government and the private sector".

"We are now working actively with our partners to improve the UK's response to identity-related crime and help reduce its devastating impact," Mr Herdan added.

Source: http://bit.ly/casSJ1