BT has hooked up with Card Protection Plan Limited (CPP) to flog insurance to protect punters against ID theft.

For £50 a year, users are covered for up to £50,000 to help meet the cost of restoring their identity if it's nicked via online fraud, "bin raiders" looking for statements and receipts, or by skimming credit cards.

The insurance cover also includes BT/CPP keeping an eye on individual credit reports and alerting punters to anything suspicious.

Last week, the National Consumer Council (NCC) called for the creation of dedicated ID fraud customer helpdesks to help victims of ID theft.

It wants businesses - especially banks, insurance companies, credit providers, phone and utility companies - to give ID fraud victims more help and to set up dedicated ID fraud customer helpdesks.

Crucially, the NCC believes it is firms that should bear the cost of these helpdesks - not the consumer. ®

Related stories

• Councils give identity fraudsters a helping hand (5 June 2006)
• Lancaster fingered as phone theft capital (16 May 2006)
• Commons walks all over Lords' ID card proposals (22 March 2006)
• 'Fascist' ID database worries Lords (7 March 2006)
• BT gets on the FirstGroup bus (7 March 2006)
• UK.gov inflates ID theft risk (3 February 2006)
• ChoicePoint fined $15m over data security breach (27 January 2006)
• £15m+ lost in tax credit fraud (16 December 2005)
• Card fraud grows online (8 November 2005)
• Millions of UK households at risk of ID theft (17 October 2005)
• Man with 130 IDs steals £1m (11 October 2005)
• Credit card companies can keep data ID theft secret (24 September 2005)