Identity thieves target junk mail

More than a million junk mail letters have been sent to dead people in Sussex in the past year.

Data management firm The REaD Group said the figure ranked parts of Sussex among the highest in the South East for such post.

The largest number were sent to West Sussex, where 678,000 names were targeted, the fourth highest in the region. In Brighton and Hove, the figure was 233,000 and for the rest of East Sussex it was 444,000.

REaD said valuable personal information, including names, addresses and dates of birth, was also increasingly being intercepted by identity fraudsters.

Britain’s fraud prevention service lists impersonation of the dead as the fastest-growing identity crime, with reported cases up by 66% since January.

The REaD Group chief executive Mark Roy said: “To lose someone close is upsetting enough but to see their identity stolen by criminals is perhaps the ultimate indignity. It is vital mailing organisations such as businesses, charities, clubs and community groups, regularly clean their databases of deceased names and addresses.”