The trial hotline set up on December 1 for people to report suspected identity theft has been told about some 170 potential cases, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.

Junior home affairs minister Ank Bijleveld said the pilot showed there was a real demand for an identity theft hotline and that it would now become permanent.
At the moment, it is very difficult for people who have become victims of identity theft to establish their innocence. ‘There are 25 police regions and several hundred information systems involved,’ a ministry spokesman told the paper. ‘The hotline means we can try to deal with all of them in one go.’