CVs - Protect Your Identity

If you are currently writing a new CV or updating an existing one, here’s a short note to ensure that you don’t fall prey to identity thieves. Fraudsters and ID thieves can very quickly make productive use of the information you include on your CV, including:

• full home address
• home (landline) telephone number
• date of birth
• place of birth
• marital status

These details are not necessary for your CV. Once released by email or onto the internet, they are readily found and picked up by criminals. They are also used in combination with other data sources (such as Facebook) to piece together a profile of your personal information. Identity thieves have been known to set up fake companies and to advertise fake jobs in a deliberate bid to acquire this information.

​When responding to on-line job advertisements take steps to verify the source. For example when responding to employment and recruitment agencies check that they are members of REC (The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which is the professional body of recruitment companies). Remember that genuine employers will never ask you to provide protected information such as your passport number or NI number on-line. Your CV need only contain your name, the town in which you live, an email address and a mobile telephone number.