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ID theft joins list of travel scams
 Preventing ID theft takes a moment of thought in a bar or hotel room. QUICKVOTEBUSINESS TRAVELLER
RESOURCES
OTHER NEWSYOUR SAY
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- You may know about scams used by moneychangers, taxi drivers and bartenders, but there is a new danger facing business travelers -- identity theft. Identity theft involves getting personal details about you, which are then used to target your bank accounts, strike business deals in your name or pose as you or your company. This kind of crime has cost consumers, finance and credit-card companies about $11.7 billion in one year up to April 2004, according to research firm Gartner Inc. "One day I received a bill from a mobile phone company for £2,000 ($3,660) for a telephone bill and then shortly after that I was refused a mortgage," Richard Cohen, a victim of identity theft told CNN. "I suspect the fraudster obviously had my name, my date of birth and maybe my mother's maiden name. People do not actually think about what they throw into the rubbish." It took Cohen months to put things right and there is no guarantee it will not happen again. "I did not realize I should destroy personal records. I may have thrown out some personal information that the fraudster was able to use to apply for an account," explains Cohen. Preventing theft takes a moment of thought, such as using the hotel safe and being careful about where you put those expenses, important pieces of paper, a computer file that contains your private details, or your diary. "You really need a shredder if you have information you want to get rid off, but you do not want to throw away in a hotel waste paper basket," says Jeffrey Robinson, a crime expert. "[I suggest you] go downstairs to the front desk, go the managers office and say that you just want to put it through their shredder." A lot of people are particularly lax in hotel rooms, since many treat the space like their home. Then again you may have handed your credit card over in a bar, only to find that it has been scanned by a fake reader when you are not looking. UK's Scotland Yard suggests that we take nothing for granted, even the business contact who promises a big deal if you give them your details. "It is very hard to tell your customer from a fraudster. Do not be afraid to ask lots of questions and either delay your sale while you are checking or close the sale and walk away from it," says Stuart Dark from the London Metropolitan Police. Business travelers will never be 100 percent safe when on the road, but you can make the fraudster's job much harder, the basic rule is -- if it is valuable to you, it is worth stealing. The U.S. Consumers League provides more anti-fraud tips at www.fraud.org CNN's Rosalind Chin contributed to this report. 
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