'Stop throwing away sensitive information!'

An estimated 19 million households regularly put sensitive material in their waste or recycling bins, according to "bin-raiding" research carried out by Fellowes, which manufactures document shredders.

The group found that 11% of people threw away documents that contained their whole credit or debit card number, while 13% of bins contained everything a fraudster would need to use the card, including numbers, expiry dates and even the cardholder's signature.

A third of people also put information in their bin that a fraudster could use to steal their identity, such as a passport, driving licence, CV and telephone and utility bills.

The message was getting through to a few though, with the overall proportion of people leaving risky information in their bin falling to 79% from 97%, when the same research was carried out last year.

The figures were released as part of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, which aims to educate consumers and businesses about the dangers of identity fraud and the steps people can take to stop themselves being victims.

Identity fraud is currently Britain's fastest growing crime and costs the economy an estimated £1.7 billion a year. Business can also be victims, with criminals trading off the back of a real company's name to obtain goods and services on credit from suppliers.

Awareness campaign

This week, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud called for the appointment of an 'Identity Fraud Tsar' to help facilitate a "joined-up" approach to the problem across the Government, police and private sector.

It also called for greater investment in an awareness campaign to educate the public and businesses about identity theft, as well as more support for victims of the crime.

Meg Hillier, the Home Office Minister with responsibility for identity fraud, who said she was supporting the week, commented: "Identity fraud is a serious problem and is often the 'tip of the iceberg', enabling other criminal activity such as benefit fraud, illegal immigration, illegal working, drug trafficking, and terrorism.

"It is vital that everyone takes appropriate steps to reduce the opportunities for criminals to use other people's identity to commit fraud.''

Meanwhile research from security technology company McAfee found that many people were putting themselves at risk from online identity fraud by using the same passwords for different accounts and not changing them regularly.

Around 16% of people use the same password to access all their online accounts and 41% never change them, according to their study.