In a time of economic uncertainty patterns of crime are also changing.

When I think of crime I usually think of a physical action or violation against a person or a thing - burglary, mugging or pick pocketing. But in recent years crime has been taking a far more sophisticated form.

One of the fastest growing crimes is identity fraud perpetrated without the criminals even breaking into your home.

Earlier in the year a study by accountancy firm KMPG revealed that fraud levels in 2008 have reached a 12 year high.

Other figures show cases of ‘account takeover’, where a facility hijacker unlawfully obtains access to a victim’s account operating it fraudulently, has more than doubled from 1,331 in the first quarter of 2007 to 3,276 in the same period this year.

That’s a massive increase of over 136 per cent and is the fastest-growing type of fraud currently recorded.

Officials say they cannot be sure why the figures are rising at such an alarming rate – well let me enlighten them.

I have always thought of myself as vigilant and savvy in such matters - following all the best advice. I cross shred everything; and sign up to monthly alerts to check my credit report for activity. I am registered with Cifas; and I even resort to eating my passwords - extreme but worthwhile having seen the chaos and distress that identity fraud can cause when my son was a victim some years ago.

But, as a recent victim of ‘account takeover’ myself, I have to tell you it is not enough. By obtaining everyday details available in the public domain – Companies House, births and deaths, and Council Tax records – criminals gathered information on my private and business account.

They were then able to make systematic calls to the telephone banking system, transferring funds from one account to the other and subsequently withdrawing substantial funds using a counterfeit passport and cheque.

It was not enough that I had never subscribed to the telephone banking system let alone had a password or that I had never drawn more that £200 from a cash point to alert the banking system that the activity was fraudulent.

The subsequent lack of interest from the police is disappointing to say the very least. Despite the availability of CCTV and transcripts of all the calls they seem preoccupied with soft crime.

Identify theft costs the British economy millions of pounds annually and has become an easy and economical way for criminals to steal money.

The ease of stealing a person’s details, coupled with the difficulty in prosecuting such crimes clearly fuels the rise in ID fraud.

You may recall that back in November HMRC ‘mislaid’ the personal details of all child benefit recipients in the UK. At the time, the banking industry released a statement to reassure its customers that sort code and bank account, national insurance number, date of birth, name and address details are not enough in themselves for an ID fraudster to access a bank account – as additional security information and passwords are always required.

I am living proof that this is clearly not the case!

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As the price of a barrel of crude oil reaches record highs, fuel prices have rocketed, more than doubling since 2007. Further increases are therefore inevitable at the pumps.

The impact is far-reaching – we are already seeing the biggest increases in food prices for generations. The disappearing age of cheap air travel is on the horizon, with ticket prices increasing to offset the rising cost of jet fuel. Energy costs have hit an all time high and bills are set to rise by 50% this year.

Diesel prices have increased by over 30% in the past twelve months fuelled by an alliance between greedy decadent oil traders, producers and speculators who have used scare-mongering to drive up prices and line their pockets.

Coupled with rising demand in China and India, the government has imposed ill-considered taxation on fuel. The UK has always levied much higher taxes on fossil fuels than the US. The result - it's not just families that are feeling the squeeze: businesses are suffering significantly.

Any business that runs a vehicle fleet will especially have felt the pinch. With the economic climate, as well as climate change high on the agenda, there has never been a better time to take the opportunity to look for alternatives.

By exploring and embracing renewable energies and alternative fuel sources, along with new technologies, and by becoming more efficient in our activities, we might just be in time to respond to this wake up call.

If we can engender enough fear that the oil business, speculators and governments source of income may be compromised we may yet, as a result, see the oil bubble burst and demand and fuel prices start to fall.

As the nation finds alternatives and starts to defect from the pumps collaboratively we can look forward to a genuinely more sustainable future that thrives without violating the planets resources and frees us from the bureaucratic political arena that currently holds us over that very expensive barrel!!

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