Here it is! On 17.11.2023 the “Zastrzeż PESEL” (“Withhold your PESEL”) service was launched, which enables additional protection of the PESEL number and is intended to provide citizens with security against fraud and other abuses.
How does it work?
– Withholding a PESEL number is a declaration that it cannot be used – for example when concluding a contract in a bank or before a notary public.
– Any liability for entering into a contract with a blocked PESEL number is therefore to be borne not by the victim of identity theft, but by an entity such as a bank. The owner of the PESEL number will not have to prove that it was not him who concluded the contract.
– The PESEL reservation will be revocable.
Where you can withhold your PESEL:
– in the mCitizen (mObywatel) application,
– on the obywatel.gov.pl website,
– at the municipality office,
– at the post office,
– in a bank.
The register is already in place, but… in fact, the full obligation for banks, notaries and other entities to check PESEL number reservations will not come into force until 1 June 2024. Until then, these institutions will have time to adapt to the new regulations, and the responsibility for contracts concluded with a reserved PESEL will remain with the client.