Basics Beginner: Introduction to Identity Theft

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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.

You should be wary of emails that claim to come from the IRS because _______.

Those emails are watched more closely by the IRS

Those emails are tapping into your computer

The IRS does not send emails to people

The IRS does not send emails to people. Any email claiming to be from the IRS is not legitimate and should be reported.

The information most valuable to an identity thief is _______.

Your mother's maiden name

Your previous employers

Your Social Security number

Your Social Security number. Your mother's maiden name is the second most valuable piece of information to an identity thief.

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.