If you thought that you could never be a victim of identity theft, think again as this rising menace has hit the corporate corridors! After the inauspicious beginnings of 2009 for the corporate India in terms of the shocking confessions of Ramalinga Raju and the ghastly revelations of the fudging of books of Satyam Technologies, the recessionary pressures have not only been regarded as a feeder to fraudsters at the corporate level but also at the individual level.

If you thought your company assets, wealth and clientele were all you needed to protect, maybe it is time to also safeguard the identity and ensure the authenticity of your employees.

Identity theft has surfaced as a serious threat for both the corporate and the individuals. Imagine having another person steal your wallet containing your identification or your mail, including your bank and credit card statements, rummaging through your trash to get your personal data, finding personal information at your home or on the internet, scamming you, often by email, by posing as legitimate companies, stealing files or bribing employees who have access to files with your information or obtaining your credit report by posing as a landlord/ employer. As a recruiter, imagine hiring a person who is another person, feigning to be someone else, blazing in your face a resume that represents all that he’s not.

“While conducting background checks for candidates we often come across such discrepant cases wherein an individual has forged his identity or has stolen someone else’s for a job”, states Ajay Trehan, CEO, AuthBridge. AuthBridge has witnessed an increase of 12 per cent in the identity theft or identity fraud cases during the last quarter. “This can be attributed to the tough economic times, which are ‘forcing’ fraudsters to commit such crimes. Whether it’s for employment or stealing an identity for cyber/telecom frauds, cyber thieves appear to be ramping up their operations to take advantage of the turmoil in the economy and perhaps to steal a few identities” says Trehan.

Investing in security

“Security measures have been ingrained in our age old recruitment processes. I started my career in the manufacturing sector. Very stringent steps were taken to prevent entry of unauthorised persons at the plant, knowing it might be someone from the competitors or any stranger who might have some malafide intention, to the extent that we needed to protect the organisation against any possible attack by anti social elements, and in these days of terrorism against a possible terrorist. This is also the reason why investment in office security, investment in access, in screening visitors and empowerment of security staff is so important,” M S Venkatesh, President Group HR, Educomp Solutions Ltd explains.