What Identity Thieves Do With Your Information

Once they’ve got your data, thieves can use it in a lot of different ways. The most common kind of fraud occurs when crooks go on a spending spree to rack up charges on your existing credit card account—but the fun doesn’t stop there!

• They use your credit card or credit card number to charge purchases to your accounts, often changing the address your bills are sent to so you won’t notice right away.
• Using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number, a thief can open a new credit card account in your name.
• With the same info, crooks can apply for phone or wireless service.
• Some thieves use your name to open a bank account and write bad checks. Others counterfeit your checks or steal your debit card number to drain your existing bank account.
• Your identity can be quite handy when a thief wants to take out car loans or mortgages.
• Crooks can use your name when filing for bankruptcy, or co-opt your entire identity to hide a bad credit history or a criminal record and start a “new life.”
• In rare cases, a thief might give your name to police when arrested. When he’s a no-show at his hearing, guess who the cops are coming after with a warrant?

Believe it or not, if your identity is stolen, the chances are about 50/50 that you’ll never find out exactly how it happened. Some kinds of theft—when a crook steals data from company files, for instance—are very hard for victims to trace.

How Thieves Steal Your Information

You don’t have to tattoo your Social Security number on your forehead and lend your credit card to random strangers to become a victim of identity theft. Determined crooks have come up with some pretty sneaky ways to get your digits. Here’s a thoroughly depressing look at how they do it.

SNATCHING YOUR PURSE OR WALLET
Pickpockets and purse snatchers are going about it the old-fashioned way. Not particularly inspired, but very effective.

STEALING YOUR MAIL
There’s a rich bounty of information in the form of credit card statements, new checks, and that unending stream of preapproved credit offers in your mailbox. And it’s not just snail mail. Your electronic communications are vulnerable to theft as well.

DUMPSTER DIVING
No, not the latest extreme sport, just a profitable if rather messy way to get your private info from your trash. Your old computer can also yield some great stuff to a crook with a few techno-skills.

BREAKING INTO YOUR HOUSE OR YOUR COMPUTER
Cyber-thieves are eager to steal that file you labeled “Important Private Confidential Sensitive Personal Information.” Subtlety’s not your strong point, is it?

CONNING A CREDIT BUREAU
By posing as someone legit, like a bank or an employer, thieves can obtain all your vital stats in one handy package. Don’t let them order your report before you do!

EAVESDROPPING AND SHOULDER SURFING
Some thieves try to listen in on your conversations or watch you enter your PIN at an ATM, using high-tech Bond gear like binoculars and video cameras.

SKIMMING
By running your plastic through a bogus reader designed to copy the card number, your seemingly innocent Food Mart guy or friendly waitress just might be ripping you off.

PRETEXTING, PHISHING, SCAMMING, AND SPOOFING

Four fancy ways of saying, “playing you for a fool.” By mail, telephone, or e-mail, thieves pretend to be from businesses with actual reasons for needing your SSN and mother’s maiden name. As if you didn’t already hate telemarketers enough!

INSIDE JOB
Sadly, a significant amount of identity theft is perpetrated by family members or relatives, who have easy access to your records. Employees and co-workers can also get your personal information at work.

STEALING FROM COMPANIES
A large number of businesses have you in their database systems, along with all the information a thief could want. To get the goods on you, thieves hack into databases, steal physical files, or pay employees to divulge your data.

A thief can also fill out a “change of address form” for you so the evidence of his crime won’t wind up on your doorstep. Lazier thieves may simply buy your information from someone who has used one of the above methods. That’s bad news, since it means multiple impostors may be committing fraud in your name.

Identity Theft 101

Identity theft, that nasty crime in which someone obtains and uses your personal information to commit fraud or theft, is the fastest growing criminal activity in the U.S. And it could be coming soon to a bank account near you!

You’ve probably heard about the most common forms of identity theft—when a thief tracks down your credit card numbers, and then uses them to max out your accounts. That kind of theft—the stolen credit card variety—is fairly easy to notice and fix.

Things get more complicated, though, when a thief steals your SSN from records at your job and uses it to apply for a mortgage or car loan. Cases like this are hard to detect and often even harder to resolve.

The problem is that all the techno-marvels we take for granted often help to serve up our identities on a silver platter to clever, techno-savvy thieves. For example, it’s great to be able to shop online, but your electronic transaction may give a hacker access to your credit card number.

And while preapproved credit applications make it easier for you to get a card, they also make it a breeze for an imposter to get credit using your name. Your personal information is available in more places than you may even realize—and it presents thieves with the perfect opportunities to make some quick cash.

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