• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
IdentityTheft.org

IdentityTheft.org

Identity Theft Protection, Statistics & Prevention

  • FAQs
    • What is Identity Theft?
    • How to Prevent Identity Theft
    • How to Check for Identity Theft
    • What to do if Your Identity is Stolen?
    • How to Freeze Your Credit
  • Resources
    • Data Breach Awareness
    • Scam Alerts
    • Types of Identity Theft
  • Protection
    • Cloud Backups
      • Best Cloud Backup Services of 2022
      • Backblaze Review and Pricing Plans
      • Carbonite Review and Pricing Plans
      • IDrive Review and Pricing Plans
    • Password Managers
      • Best Password Managers of 2022
      • LastPass Review and Pricing Plans
      • 1Password Review and Pricing Plans
      • Password Boss Review and Pricing Plans
      • Dashlane Review and Pricing Plans
      • Keeper Review and Pricing Plans
      • RoboForm Review and Pricing Plans
      • pCloud Review and Pricing Plans
    • Phone Number Lookup
      • Best Reverse Phone Lookup Services of 2022
      • RoboKiller Review and Pricing Plans
    • People Search
      • Best People Search Services of 2022
      • Spokeo Review and Pricing Plans
      • BeenVerified Review and Pricing Plans
      • PeopleFinders Review and Pricing Plans
      • DeleteMe Review and Pricing Plans
    • Parental Control Software
      • Best Parental Control Software
      • Net Nanny Review and Pricing Plans
    • Credit Monitoring
    • Credit Card Protection
    • Identity Theft Insurance
    • RFID Wallets
  • Recovery
    • Credit Repair
      • Best Credit Repair Services of 2022
      • Credit Saint Review and Pricing Plans
      • Lexington Law Review and Pricing Plans
      • Sky Blue Review and Pricing Plans
      • Ovation Credit Repair Review and Pricing Plans
    • Data Recovery
      • Best Data Recovery Services of 2022
      • Disk Drill Review and Pricing Plans
      • Stellar Data Recovery Review and Pricing
      • EaseUS Review and Pricing Plans
      • Recoverit Review and Pricing
      • Ontrack Data Recovery Review and Pricing
    • Identity Theft Attorneys
  • Report Identity Theft

What is Identity Theft?

Identity theft is the process of attaining an individual’s personal and sensitive information for committing fraud under their name. This could include unauthorized transactions and various purchases.

Understanding Identity Theft

An individual’s Social Security Number (SNN), credit card information or bank account details are all sensitive information. This information grants direct access to a person’s finances, and when someone steals this information from you, they can use it against you.

They can use this information for illegal transactions, such as wiping out your bank account clean. For example, an identity thief could look in trash bins for transaction receipts to get the necessary info to commit the fraud.

However, there are much faster and more sophisticated methods of committing these frauds. For instance, an identity thief could access the government database and extract your personal information.

These thieves can ruin your credit rating, leave you financially vulnerable and eat up all your financial benefits without you realizing it. This can also endanger your personal information in the future.

Most fraud is committed digitally since performing these acts remotely is much easier to carry out. However, hackers can get ahold of information physically by stealing discarded computer hardware or rummaging through the garbage for sensitive information.

Types of Identity Theft

There are various kinds of identity theft that you should know about. These are as follows

Financial Identity Theft

The most common kind of identity theft is the financial one, in which the thieves compromise the finances of an individual. The thieves can use your personal information to gather your credit, goods, services, or benefits without your consent in financial identity theft cases.

Medical Identity Theft

Medical identity theft revolves around impersonating another person to take their health benefits such as free medical care. This may seem insignificant, but can cost you thousands of dollars, if you aren’t careful.

Synthetic Identity Theft

Synthetic identity theft revolves around using real and synthetic information to register new accounts, loans, and benefits under a person’s name. For example, an identity thief may register a new bank account under your name and use it to carry out fraudulent activities. Similarly, others might steal money from credit card companies, or insurance providers through false claims under your name. While synthetic identity theft usually takes the longest to prepare, it is the most dangerous one.

Child Identity Theft

The child identity thieves use the name of a child or its identity for various gains. It is because the children do not have dangerous information connected to them, making child identity theft an easy way out. For example, fraud may use the child’s social security account to obtain a residence, credit cards, loans, etc.

Close family members are the victims of these kinds of child identity frauds. Similarly, some identity and info thieves may access information about a deceased and manipulate it for financial gains.

Tax Identity Theft

A thief may use another person’s information for filing bogus federal or state tax returns, which could take thousands of dollars from your account and transfer it to the fraud. This also leaves you without the tax refund you deserve in your time of need.

Criminal Identity Theft

A criminal poses as another person to carry out illegal activities in this kind of theft. They may use another person’s information to avoid summons, prevent warrant issuance notification, and avoid arrest and conviction records in the government database.

What Can You Do About It?

Identity theft is a serious concern that can cost individuals thousands of dollars if they aren’t careful enough. However, there are ways to prevent identity theft against your name and keep yourself safe. For example, you can check the accuracy and records of your personal information and highlight any unknown activity you see.

You should consider the slightest deviance too because the fraudsters usually run a test transaction of a smaller amount before making the actual theft. Alerting the concerned authorities on time before they make any such moves can help you in the long run.

Bottom Line

If you suspect that you are facing identity theft, contacting the IdentityTheft.gov site is a wise move to make. It is a website run by the Federal Trade Commission and provides information on how to deal with identity theft.

This also applies to spoofing scenarios where thieves may pose as a legitimate business or a known department professional to obtain personal information.

We suggest you check out the Steps for Identity Theft Recovery to avoid any financial, legal, or emotional liabilities. These steps will guide you all about what you need to know about dealing with identity theft and reporting it to the concerned authorities.

Sources

  • https://www.identitytheft.gov/#/Steps
  • https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/identitytheft.asp#citation-5
  • https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-identity-theft

Primary Sidebar

Copyright National Council on Identity Theft Protection© 2022

Identitytheft.org is a privately owned website and is not owned or operated by any state or government agency. The government operated website can be found at Identitytheft.gov. We may receive a payment, commission, or affiliate compensation in connection with any purchase you make of products or services featured on our site. These commissions help us to operate Identitytheft.org.

  • About Us
  • Digital Safety Tools
  • Research
  • Privacy Policy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT