There has been a staggering rise in identity theft and young people are increasingly becoming the victims.

According to Cifas, the fraud prevention organisation, ID fraud in the UK has hit the highest levels ever recorded.

A record 172,919 cases were recorded in 2016 more than in any other previous year. Identity fraud now represents over half of all fraud recorded of which 88 per cent was perpetrated online.

The vast majority of identity fraud happens when a fraudster pretends to be an innocent individual to buy a product or take out a loan in their name. Often victims do not even realise that they have been targeted until a bill arrives for something they did not buy or they experience problems with their credit rating.

To carry out this kind of fraud successfully, fraudsters need access to their victim's personal information such as name, date of birth, address, their bank and who they hold accounts with.

Fraudsters get hold of this in a variety of ways, from stealing mail through to hacking; obtaining data on the 'dark web'; exploiting personal information on social media, or though 'social engineering' where innocent parties are persuaded to give up personal information to someone pretending to be from their bank, the police or a trusted retailer.

A spokesperson for Cifas said: "We have seen growing numbers of young people falling victim in recent years and this upward trend continued in 2016 with almost 25,000 victims under 30.

"In particular we saw a 34 per cent increase in under 21s, and therefore Cifas is again calling for better education around fraud and financial crime and urging young people to be vigilant about protecting their personal data."

Mike Haley, deputy chief executive, Cifas said: "These new figures show that identity fraud continues to be the number one fraud threat. With nine out of ten identity frauds committed online and with all age groups at risk, we are urging everyone to make it more difficult for fraudsters to abuse their identity.

"There are three simple steps that anyone can take to protect themselves: use strong passwords, download software updates when prompted on your devices; and avoid using public wi-fi for banking and online shopping.

"We all remember to protect our possessions through locking our house or flat or car but we don't take the same care to protect our most important asset - our identities. We all need to take responsibility to secure our mail boxes, shred our important documents like bank statements and utility bills, and take sensible precautions online."