Have you fallen foul of “Denis Atlas” and his CV/Resume security scams?

In times of reducing employment, the temptation to send your CV winging off to any old online jobs board or career related website is compelling. You need a job, you are not sending them any cash, so what’s the problem?

In a controlled experiment, supported by the Metropolitan Police and the Information Assurance Advisory Council, online CV filing organisation iProfile.org placed a job advert for a fictional company in a UK national newspaper, inviting people to apply by emailing their CV. The advert was run during the National Identity Fraud Prevention week. Anyone carrying out a simple web search for the company – ‘Denis Atlas’, an anagram of ‘steal an id’ - would have found a website telling them the company was fake. In just one week, 107 CVs were received in response to the job advert. iProfile enlisted the help of reformed identity thief, Bob Turney, to analyse the CVs and discovered that the vast majority contained enough information for an identity theft to occur.

As security expert Frank Abagnale said in a recent interview: "It's all publicly available on the internet. But actually I only need three pieces of information to get credit in someone's name: their full name, date of birth and national insurance number."

But during the iProfile experiment, the average CV received contained eight pieces of information. 61 CVs (57%) included a date of birth, despite this no longer being a UK legislative requirement due to age discrimination laws, and 98 (91.5%) included a full address. A further 20 (19%) put others at risk by providing full details of references. One even included the applicant’s passport number and national insurance details.

Protecting yourself from CV ID Fraud
Think about the information a potential employer needs to find your details inserting enough to be able to contact you. You can share your full CV and details at a later stage when you are comfortable with the identity of the company or person you are sharing the information with.

Follow the following tips to ensure you are not a victim of CV/Resume ID fraud:

BEFORE you apply:
1.Ensure your contact details are focused on you and neutral. If in doubt or if you live in temporary accommodation, get a mail box – at around £20/$30 a month, it’s a security bargain
2.Your eMail address should be adult and focused around you, and not a childish online character – Jennie69 may be fun online but is a no-employment sign on a CV/Resume. If your name is Jim Smith, then Jsmith@aol.com is fine unless you happen to be a web designer, in which case get a domain and create a portfolio
3.Get yourself a nice new Pay As You Go cellphone. You won’t be making many outbound calls on it initially, so no need for anything more than the starter £10/$10 credit. Record the message greeting in your own voice – write down the salutation before recording it in a nice quiet room: “Hello, this is X. I am sorry I can’t take your call right now, but please leave your name and contact details, and I will call you back as soon as I can.”
4.Do a Google CV check, and clean-up your online profiles

Check the organisation:
5. Be wary if the email address does not contain the name of the company but just the name of an internet service provider such as @AOL.com. It’s OK for you, but not for the organisation your are sending your details to
6. All websites globally MUST legally include: the trading organisations name (ie – Mr Smith or XYZ Company Ltd), a contact address and a contact telephone number. If you can not find these details then don’t use the website, and before submitting your details online, always call them first

In your CV/Resume:
7.NEVER state your full name, and leave out middle names. James Robert Smith comes down to James Smith, or if you use your middle name in preference Robert Smith. Never use Jim, Rob, or J Rob – this is a formal and professional application, plus middle names are often used by banks as security checks
8.Mainly for women, but also for men, never state Miss, Ms or Mrs. Never state your marital status – an ongoing messy divorce is a no-employment warning, a former marriage best left in the past
9.In your CV/Resume, state the contact details you have already lined up before. If using your home address, then just include district and city, nothing more: Manhattan, New York or Hammersmith, London is legally sufficient. No need for street, and certainly no need for apartment/house number
10.There is no legal requirement to state your Date of Birth, but NEVER state your full date of birth. “Aged 32” at maximum
11.There is a lot of debate in the CV/Resume writing community about stating certain employment dates: if you do you could look old, if you don’t it is difficult to show the level of experience. The area to pay attention to are your educational dates, often used as security checks. If you are past 20, then no need for school (I can age you from that), and probably leave out your base degree graduation date – again often a security check used by banks
12.NEVER included any government issued numbers or related personal information. This covers everything from National Insurance/Social Security numbers, Passport numbers, and Tax code references. Even if you are a migrant worker, just state “Fully able and certified to be able to work in X country, full documentation available on request at interview stage.”
13.NEVER provide personal financial details, such as bank and credit card details. Avoid any employer who asks for a process fee or application deposit – it’s a sure sign it’s a scam
14.NEVER include the names and contact details of your references, even if asked for – the same goes for them as much as you

When applying:
15. Take extra care when accessing and sending personal information when using public computers, such as those in internet cafes, or when using a laptop in a WiFi hotspot.


Please, think about what information you include on your CV/Resume. Often when candidates ask how they get their four page leviathans down to two pages, just applying the above rules would reduce it by at least a page.

If you think you may be a victim then send off for your credit-reference files from a recognised organisation like Experian or Equifax - it only costs £2/$5. They will show any fraudulent applications for credit. Inform CIFAS, the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System, which will put your name on an alert file.

For more information on this subject, you may like to read the following websites and articles:

- UK Government online ID website identitytheft.org.uk
- CIFAS
- Wikipedia article on Identity Theft
- Daily Mirror article on ID theft