How Does Identity Theft Happen?

Identity thieves use items like your driver’s license or Social Security number to assume your identity. With just a few items of personal information, an experienced identity thief can open new bank accounts and write bad checks, get new credit card accounts in your name and not pay the bills, get a personal, car loan or cash advances, create cellular phones accounts or utility services and start running up bills, change your mailing address and charge on your existing credit card accounts, illegally obtain employment or rent an apartment but refuse to pay the lease until being evicted.

Who is at Risk of Identity Theft?

Everyone is really. But you create a bigger risk for yourself if you don’t dispose of, or are careless with, sensitive information like credit card numbers and bank accounts, birth certificates, Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses . The holy grail for identity thieves is your Social Security number, so make sure you guard it.

Use the need to know principle, if someone doesn’t need to know your Social Security number, or your driver’s license number, or any other details, then don’t give it to them. You should expect any employer, organization or individual whom you supply your details to do the same and respect your privacy.

Online threats are growing and range from issues like phishing to hidden code within Myspace pages. You should be very careful about forwarding your information across the web, especially when using wireless internet.

Who Are These Identity Thieves?

It could be anyone. Although about half of identity theft cases are attributed to family and friends of the victim. However, anyone who might have access to you personal matters or information could sell that information and place your identity and credit history in turmoil.

Identity Theft Laws

In a nutshell, anyone who uses another person’s name, or other details, and attempts to commit fraud using those details or person’s name is guilty of identity theft. There are also laws involving privacy that apply to employers- things like the shredding of old documents prior to disposal and proper safeguards during the use and storage of information.

In fact, an employee would have grounds to sue any employer if identity theft resulted as a consequence of improper management of information. There are also fines associated with this.

REAL ID is a contentious issue in America and will either help solve identity theft or make it easier, depending on who you are listening to. There is no question that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America and one which concerns many people.

As of 2004, the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act commenced and promised hasher penalties for identity theft. It involves jail time for those who use identity theft to commit other crimes. The law also raised the standard for conduct of people employed in areas where sensitive documents are common.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 9:01 am and is filed under Credit Card Theft and Fraud, Email Scams, Identity Theft, Identity Theft Protection, Identity Theft Resources, Identity Theft Victims, LifeLock, Spyware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.