Identity Theft How To Know The
Way You Are Cheated
Identity theft how to know it? What is it? There are
increasing numbers of such crimes happening where people are
using other's identity to commit crimes. Take for example
someone is using your credit card to buy items, creating bank
accounts in your name without your knowledge and, even more
scary, committing federal crimes in your name. Now the only
person, police are going to arrest is you.
What are the types of Identity thefts?
Identity theft how to know the types? A 2003 survey
conducted by the Federal Trade Commission has given the
information that in the previous year as many as 10 million
people were victim of identity fraud. Identity thefts are
where a person or a group has used someone else's
identification documents or other identifiers and impersonated
that person. There are many types of Identity thefts -
- Financial Fraud:
Here the fraud includes credit card frauds, bank frauds,
computer and telecommunication frauds, mail frauds and several
more. In fact, the United States Secret Service has found out
a total of 25 types of financial identity frauds.
- Criminal activities:
This is the scariest of them all - it is using a person's
identity to commit a crime. But in case of this type of
identity theft how to know about the crime that is happening
around you and dragging you with it? Crime like infiltrate a
foreign country, get unauthorized permits, hide one's own
identity, terrorism, computer and cyber crimes, drug
trafficking, laundering, organized crime, and alien smuggling
etc are increasing rampant.
Identity Theft how to survive the credit card scare?
May be you are using your credit card often to pay many
bills here and there. Even, chances can be there that you have
not taken the credit card receipt at times. The receipt
contains your account information as well as your signature.
Now it would be very easy to use your credit card over phone
and buy or book things using your credit card information.
Another way of identity theft how to processes can be that,
your pre-approved card falling in wrong hands. All the thief
has to do is just take out the information from the trashcan
and mail them requesting a change of address and start using
them. You will not know this until your credit card company
finds you out and demands the payment for the purchase of
which you have not actually done.
If a wrong person gets the name, social security number and
date of birth of a innocent man then he can use that
information to get loans, access that man's bank accounts,
open new bank accounts, get lease or buy a car, get insurance
and what not. Quite a lot of transactions nowadays are made
over phone. Imagine the scenario when a person has used his
personal information to get a mortgage! The next step is a
time consuming one to repair the damage and bring back your
financial identity on the right track. Most often than not the
damage is irrecoverable.
Where to get the Personal Information?
- It can be dug out from the trashcan
- Sales clerk or
waiters copying or memorizing them
- Stealing from your
mail-box
- Removing from the employer's file, personally or
with help from an accomplice.
- Removing from the hospital
information
- Done by phishing (impersonating a web-site)
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