How Identity Theft Happens
At the core, identity theft and credit card fraud are both results of the same actions. It starts when a criminal gains access to your personal information. That information includes your full name, date of birth, Social Security Number, address, telephone number, and the names of your family including parents and children.
In today’s world, a lot of that information can be gained with little more than digging through your trash and even engaging you in conversation in the grocery store line. For example, identity thieves will go through your trash and gather credit card statements, bank statements, and personal correspondence. This documents usually contain nearly everything they need.
To get the last few bits of information, a conversation at the grocery store or even a telephone call to your home usually works. These criminals are great con artists. They know what questions to ask and how to phrase those questions to get you to spill your guts. Before you know it, you’ve told someone you don’t even know your whole life story.
After that, all that’s left is to begin the process of creating another you on paper. They create new accounts, order copies of your Social Security card and birth certificate, and secure a new job in another state. And it’s done. Someone else who looks nothing like in you in real life is your exact duplicate in the paper and cyber world.
Of course, that’s not the only way to get your information. Phishing emails, spoofed web sites, telephone surveys, and even old-fashioned breaking and entering or purse/wallet snatching are also methods that identity thieves use. Even your medical records and employee records at your place of employment put you at risk.
Most concerning is the places that aren’t obvious where your identity can be snatched without notice. Remember the news anchor from Nashville? After a lot of investigating on his own, he eventually learned that his identity had been stolen when he applied for a private pilot’s license.
Others have learned that family or friends sold their identifying information. And many never figure out what happened. The one consistent factor in every case of identity theft is that it happens when you least expect it, usually in a place where you feel safe.
