Talk about sex? No thanks, say Britons. Financial information? Oh, OK. Consumers are more willing to share their personal and banking details than information about their past love life, according to research by protection specialist CPP.

Despite warnings about the growing threat of identity theft, 12 percent of more than 2,000 people surveyed confessed that they would give away their bank details within six months of meeting a new partner. One in four give out their full address and nearly 40 percent their date of birth on a first date.

Around the country, people in Brighton seem most free and easy with their financial information: 39 percent of them would give away their banking details, 35 percent would share their full address on a first date and 87 percent their birth date after a mere month.

In comparison, those in Belfast seem to be least at risk from “social engineering” scams — where fraudsters deliberately set out to extract as much personal information as possible. Only 8 percent of those polled in Belfast said they would give away their bank details and 6 percent their passwords within six months.

On the flip side, the majority of Britons are tight-lipped when it comes to sharing their sexual history with a new partner. Only 17 percent are willing to open the ex files in the first two or three months and a third say they will never spill the beans.

“People still need to make the connection that personal information can be the gateway to credit in the form of personal loans, store and credit cards and should therefore be less reckless especially with people you have only known for a short time,” says Danny Harrison, head of identity protection at CPP.

The findings, worryingly, come at a time when consumers and card providers face new and growing threats of fraud, much of which is moving overseas and online following the introduction of chip and PIN, which came into full force on Valentine’s Day 2006.

Speaking at the ninth annual European plastic card and online fraud conference, being staged in London this week, David Mitchell, head of development for digital and retail banking at Barclays Bank, believed the advent of faster payments in 2008 will pose a huge issue for the prevention of fraud. “Money will move between banks in 20 seconds: before you know it’s happening, it’ll be gone.”

Card issuers, such as Barclays, are innovating. Two factor authentication, whereby consumers use portable card-readers and single-use codes to authorise payments, will, he says, become the norm.

But while the financial services industry moves to close loopholes exploitable by those intent on stealing our identities — and our money — perhaps we should learn to be less free and easy with our personal information.