Basics Beginner: Introduction to Identity Theft

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"Smishing" is a term that refers to stealing personal information via _______.

Social media

Texting

Texting. Smishing refers to baiting people via text messages and persuading them to divulge personal or financial information.

Which of the following are ways to protect your computer from intrusion for identity theft?

Use a firewall and maintain current virus protection

Protect financial information with a password, and avoid automatic log-in processes that store your account information

Use a secured browser

All of the above

All of the above. Using all of these steps can help ensure that your PC is protected.

Gathering personal information from several people and forming a fake "person" out of it is called _______.

Business identity theft

Synthetic identity theft

Criminal identity theft

Synthetic identity theft. The name refers to forming a new person out of several others.

When your credit record is harmed by identity theft, you will learn about it right away.

True

False

False. Though in some cases you might, in many others you won't until you try to take out a loan, which can be years down the road.

Federal law enforcement agencies investigate every case of suspected identity theft.

True

False

False. Federal law enforcement agencies will only investigate cases of suspected identity theft if the dollar amount is very high, or if many people are victimized by the same perpetrator.