It is Fraud Awareness week, and consumers are being encouraged to make a report to police as soon as they become aware of a theft or misuse of their identity.
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Financial Services Complaints (FSC) was receiving an increasing number of complaints from people who discovered they have bad credit ratings, for loans they knew nothing about.
FSC chief executive Susan Taylor said the organisation used to get a couple of year, but in the past six months it had received about 30 complaints.
"In many of these cases, the consumer calls us because they discovered a bad debt listing on their credit report that they do not think belongs to them," Taylor said, adding this often occurs when the consumer applies for credit, such as a home loan.
In many cases the fraud occurred in buy-now, pay-later finance agreements and/or credit card lending.
She said it was critical for victims to file any report of fraud to the police as soon as possible, to pass on to lenders and debt collectors.
Taylor said fraud was often easy to spot, such as the wrong address or date of birth on a loan or credit application.
"We also sometimes hear that the consumer had their driver's licence stolen in recent years, so it's possible that someone is fraudulently using their identity to apply for finance.
"Those who complain to us often feel that the financial service provider cannot have done their due diligence to confirm the identity of the person they were lending to."
Taylor said this type of fraud was stressful to sort out.
"Fortunately, these complaints are usually resolved reasonably quickly in the financial service provider's internal complaints process.
"However, this process could be expedited if the consumer has already reported the fraud to the police and is able to provide the financial service provider with a police report number."
Another option is for the consumer to proactively check their credit report to be reassured that there are no false listings in their name, before they apply for a loan.