The UK’s identity fraud industry is faces a new opponent in the new DataPatrol service from Garlik, an identity expert company created by the founders of Egg.
DataPatrol is the first service designed to counter ID theft, a multi-billion pound industry. The new technology allows consumers to track their personal data on the Internet, along with key public records, commercial databases and customer credit profiles. DataPatrol gives customers a monthly report on where their information appears on the Internet and how vulnerable they are to ID theft.
“The internet has become a rich source of information about people,” says Mike Harris, chairman of Garlik. “This is beginning to be exploited not only by businesses but by fraudsters. We saw this trend emerging and combined our expertise to develop a new company to empower the consumer. Our priority has been to develop a service to combat the new wave of cyber crime which uses the internet to capture and take over people’s identities. As the web continues to develop, Garlik will also evolve, providing new services to help the consumer take control of their information.”
An estimated 100,000 people are affected by identity fraud each year and the number is expected to double in the next five years, costing the UK economy 4 billion by 2010.
“Identity theft is a growing problem,” adds Tom Ilube, CEO of Garlik. “The costs to victims are high both in terms of financial losses and the emotional impact of having their most private asset stolen. DataPatrol is the simplest and most effective way to combat identity theft and is the only service which protects consumers’ online identities.”
Garlik is the brainchild of the former Egg CIO and First Direct CEO. Both are graduates of the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science. The two have appointed a panel of experts to advise the business: Simon Davies, director of Privacy International; Mark Opzoomer, former MD of Yahoo! Europe and Daniel Cooper, a privacy lawyer with Covington & Burling.