It is important for individuals to safeguard their financial information as fraudsters are at large during the recession.

This is the advice of Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, who highlighted that identity fraud in particular is on the rise.

As credit is less readily available than in the past, fraudsters are looking to use the current accounts of others to secure funds rather than following the usual routes.

Money is sought from existing money agreements, he highlighted, which shows fraudsters are willing to react to changing conditions.

"You see quite a lot of this discussion around phishing, for example, in emails, trying to tempt you to provide your account details online – there's been quite a bit growth in that," Mr Munroe stated.

However, these scams are proving successful because individuals are falling for them, so people need to be more vigilant, he emphasised.

Meanwhile, smaller value areas are now growing in popularity, which shows consumers really need to be on their guard.

"There's been quite a big increase in mobile phone account takeovers, which has probably not been that prevalent up until the last year - but again, I think, an indication of how fraudsters are adapting to the current economic climate," he continued.

People tend to ignore warnings that suggest they may have fallen victim to fraud, so they need to make sure they are aware of the tell-tale signs before it is too late.

Mr Munroe added: "Unfortunately, it probably needs people to have experienced this issue and have had to go through the angst of sorting this out before the message gets home."

Figures from the National Fraud Authority show 44 per cent of Britons do not shred documents containing sensitive information before placing them in the bin.

Furthermore, only 54 per cent of people routinely check their financial statements and just 45 per cent follow up missing post.