Thetownend.com

A good friend of mine has had their Identiy ‘stolen’. By that I mean that someone has managed to use their name, address etc to get an overdraught with a major high st bank. This only came to light when the paperwork turned up at their address. They now have to go to this bank tomorrow armed to the teeth with ID including photo ID. What they are wondering is how these cunts managed to get all of this without photo ID in the first place. Can any of you shed any light on this for me to pass on?

Sounds like she's been phished.

Not being an Angler or into street slang how does that manifest itself?

In a nutshell, it would mean she's been tricked into handing over confidential information online.

She's probably had an email that from her bank or some other 'service' saying that they need certain information. Only the email is not from the bank at all...

Or shopped at Dixons/Carphone Warehouse. Or one of the other places that have had customer data stolen due to shoddy security. Not always the fault of the individual.

Not a she. But I get the gist.

If you've got enough information about someone (name, address, d.o.b., NI number) it's fairly trivial to open a bank account online. Most financial institutions do electronic ID checks now, which assuming you've got said data is again easy to pass.