Bay of Plenty residents are being warned to protect their identities as part of National Fraud Awareness Week.

Running this week until Saturday, the campaign aims to remind the community of the importance of safeguarding personal information.

A national awareness week is being dedicated to protecting people against identity fraud.

A website has been set up dedicated to helping people protect themselves from becoming a victim of identity fraud, with information on how this criminal offending occurs and what people should do to stop it.

Director of media relations Laeta Crawford says: 'This year's awareness campaign focuses on paper-based documents in particular.

'While there has been quite a bit of focus on online identity theft in the past year, paper-based information is almost the forgotten problem, with full names and addresses often all it takes to become a victim of identity theft.”

'The awareness campaign aims to educate businesses and consumers on how to prevent identity fraud through simple steps such as destroying hard copy documents containing personal information, such as bank statements, and protecting yourself online.”

For more information on how individuals and businesses can protect against identity theft, please visit: www.stopidfraud.com.au