What to do if you've been the victim of identity theft

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- Check your credit hasn't been tampered with
- Tips on avoiding identity theft

There have been a number of reports of local and national government departments and agencies, financial services companies, banks and retailers losing sensitive personal information affecting thousands or even millions of people.

Accidents, failed deliveries, thefts, hackers and untrustworthy insiders regularly expose data ranging from names, addresses and dates of birth to bank and credit card account details to the risk of abuse. Armed with this, criminals could impersonate innocent people, clear their accounts and run up debts in their names.

The big question for all of us who might be affected is what we can do if we fear that we are among the latest batch of data breach victims.

The following tips provide a decent plan of action.

• Check your bank, credit card and other account statements regularly for unexpected and unusual transactions. If you notice anything out of the ordinary and believe the account has been compromised, contact the relevant organisation and notify them of the issue.

• Change all the passwords and PINs that could relate to the data that has been lost. If a fraudster could have got hold of the names and dates of birth of your children, for example, you should not use these as passwords.

• Check your credit report. This is the history of your credit accounts, such as cards, loans and mortgages, plus your repayment history, details of recent applications and court judgments for non-payment of debts.

If you spot any applications you haven't made, any accounts you didn't open or any debts you haven't run up, contact the relevant organisations immediately and explain the circumstances. You can check your Experian credit report for free with a 30-day trial now.

• Watch out for hoax calls, letters or e-mails. Criminals may take advantage of your distress in the wake of a data breach to extract further information - for example, they may ask for more details about your situation and claim these are needed so that you can receive compensation.