Cooking the Books podcast: What happens when your identity is stolen

Keith Ng was shocked when he was contacted by debt collection companies about paying bills for things he'd never signed up for. Photo / Keith Ng

Each week, BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackle a different money problem. Today, it’s how to fight back when fraud is committed in your name. Hosted by Frances Cook.

It’s the sort of thing that makes for a good scary headline, but which you might think would never happen to you: having your identity stolen so people can commit fraud and dodgy financial dealings in your name, while you suffer the consequences.

Well, you might be surprised to learn just how easily it can happen, and just how hard it is to stop.

One New Zealander has discovered exactly that, but as he battled the issue himself, he found techniques that stopped the debt collectors in their tracks.

For the latest podcast, I spoke to Keith Ng.

For the interview, listen to the podcast here.

• If you have a question about this podcast, or a question you’d like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I’m on Facebook here, Instagram here, and X here.

• Listen to the full interview on the Cooking the Books podcast. You can subscribe on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.