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How Can Your Identity Be Stolen?

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How Can Your Identity Be Stolen?

Identity thieves take and use personally identifiable information about people and use this information to impersonate them. Their methods are many, so it pays to become familiar with what they do. Thieves use a variety of information, such as Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, your address and phone number, your birthday, your driver’s license number, insurance information, credit card numbers, and debit card numbers. Your Social Security number is perhaps the most important to thieves because it can be used to set up bogus accounts from which they can extract money.

Here are some known methods by which identity thieves work:

Physical methods

  • Stealing your bank or credit cards, other identification cards, checks, or other financial instruments. This can be done through robbery, stealing mail, stealing your wallet when it is unattended, or pickpocketing.
  • Foraging through your trash for personal information or for pre-approved credit slips.
  • Looking over your shoulder at ATMs, scanners, or other electronic equipment to get PIN numbers or credit card numbers.
  • Gathering public records about you from various official registers.
  • Stealing castings of fingers in order to produce your fingerprints.
  • Gathering electronic data storage equipment such as flash drives, hard drives, smart phones, and computers that have not been wiped clean.

Bogus schemes

  • Advertising false job offers and gathering resumes that show personal information.
  • Posing as an employer or landlord and ordering your credit report.
  • Contacting you through a bogus telemarketing scheme to get your personal information.
  • Impersonating a customer service person and asking for your personal information.
  • Diverting your mail in order to get your personal information.
  • Diverting your mail or email in order to delay your finding out about bogus accounts set up by thieves.

Electronic methods

  • Skimming information on your credit cards, check cards, or passports via hacked scanners or inserting a sheet of paper between the card and the scanner.
  • Gathering your information by using malware, such as Trojans or spyware.
  • Hacking into entire computer networks, for example at credit card companies.
  • Obtaining personal information from breaches of networks or other systems.
  • Abusing one’s privileges as an IT person or account representative and accessing your personal information. This can happen at your place of employment.
  • Phishing—impersonating an organization in email, over the phone, or via text to persuade you to give out your personal information.
  • Smishing—phishing via text message.
  • Using electronic equipment or sheer guesswork to obtain usernames or passwords.
  • Taking advantage of weak privacy protections on your computer.
  • Buying your personal information online from criminals.

Social methods

  • Using your personal information out of revenge against a former spouse, friend, lover, or co-worker.
  • Friending strangers on social networks and gradually obtaining their personal information through conversations.
  • Hacking into social networks.
  • Gathering personal information posted by you on social media, message boards, or texts.