What Is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is usually defined as the act of someone stealing ones identity including personal or financial information in order to commit a crime or fraud. Identity theft has been a popular form of crime for decades, however with the ease in which information flows these days, identity theft is the most prevalent it has ever been.
Common examples of identity theft involves a criminal collecting your personal information such as a social security number, credit card number, full name and address and other information that can then be used to either apply for a credit card or loan and then purchasing items with that credit card or loan using your identity.
Identity theft is not only a problem of individuals, but also small businesses and corporations. Unfortunately with the ease and flow of information via computer networks and the internet, it is easier than ever to find access and use personal and financial information of others. Businesses that are constantly targeted by identity theft and fraud are banks, credit card institutions and government institutions that disburse payments.
The goal of identity thieves is to purchase items under your name and leave you holding the bill. Unfortunately, many identity theft crimes could be prevented if the consumer is fully aware of the problem and understands how identity theft works, leaving the consumer less exposed to the many scams that exist.
For instance, many consumers will blindly fill out applications that include their personal and financial information and not fully know who will see their information. Identity theft can occur over the internet when answering an email from your financial institution asking for you to resubmit financial institution or in the form of directly filling out a sweepstakes form at the mall and including personal information such as a maiden name, birth date or social security number.
Identity thieves usually target a specific type of individual; however no one is immune to identity theft. Obviously, an identity thief will try to target a person with a good credit rating in which credit cards are easily to attain.
The fact is that identity theft can occur on many levels, including the consumer giving up personal information, a business or corporation having its customer’s database hacked or an employee that works for a third party vendor whose job it is to process personal and financial information has his or her laptop stolen with important personal files. Identity theft is a huge problem that can affect a large amount of consumers each year.
