Identity theft happens when a thief uses a person’s identity or personal information and data- like name, Social Security number, identification card, and bank account details- without the person’s permission or knowledge.
There are six basic categories of identity theft and countless other subcategories of those. We’ll limit this article to just the major types.
It happens when someone uses a person’s account information to either extract funds or to purchase services and products, using existing accounts.
It happens when someone steals a person’s medical or health insurance data and obtains medical services or makes false claims.
It happens when someone steals the complete identity of a person and starts to live and function like that person.
It happens when someone uses a person’s personal identifying information to purchase services and products using the person’s good credit.
It happens when someone uses a business’ name to obtain credit and details of clients for services and products.
It happens when someone commits a crime using another person’s identity and name.
Read Also: 9 Cyber Security Threats to Small Businesses in 2019
Because sometimes you just need the help of hard, cold, and scary facts to engrave and emphasize the depth of the situation.
Identity theft happens in multiples of different ways. These federal thieves don’t have a set pattern of stealing and using the personal information of the victims. But there’s one thing for sure; it’s that the effect of these crimes is distressing and far too long for the victims.
These identity theft examples portray a similar scenario:
This happened with Abraham Abdallah in 2001. He was arrested because he had taken on the identities of a few very wealthy American executives and celebrities. He gained access to bank accounts, credit cards, and much more.
In 2009, Lara Love and David Jackson stole private information like credit card numbers through Wi-Fi networks of their neighbors.
In this, Rebecca Nakutis found that someone else was using her pictures and data to create a fake social media profile that used her data and pictures to create a fake profile.
If you take out 5 minutes from your busy life, term these small changes as serious, and follow-up on them, then you’ll save yourself from a lot of trouble and pain in the future. Acting on something as soon as possible is always the best move.
Identity thieves are masters at stealing personal information and data. Throughout the years, their methods have gotten better and more sophisticated. But still, there’s always a leeway of error provided to them by us. This is how identity theft takes place:
Identity theft can be highly damaging, and sometimes you don’t even realize that your identity has been stolen. But once you do get to know about it, you shouldn’t sit idle worrying but rather take some immediate steps to curb the exponentially growing damage.
Step 1: Notify and inform the affected banks or creditors.
Step 2: Check and put a fraud alert and/or freeze your credit reports.
Step 3: Report the theft to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the respective theft officials.
Step 4: Contact and file a report to your local police department.
Step 5: Remove all the fraudulent information from your credit reports.
Step 6: Change all the passwords of the accounts affected and tighten security on them.
Step 7: Replace and create your new identification, which was stolen.
Step 8: Open new financial and credit card accounts.
Step 9: Finally, don’t take stress about it, and from here on keep taking check of your account actions. Opt for an identity theft protection service, if you’d like.
There’s bad news; you can’t completely protect yourself from identity theft. But you can greatly reduce the risk of it happening to you, by following these steps:
Sometimes the basic preventive steps don’t hit the mark, and you feel the need for something extra. This is when Identity theft protection services come into the picture. They help in monitoring and protecting a person’s identity. They also help out in recovering when a person experiences identity theft. They usually begin with credit monitoring and layer on additional services to alert about budding problems.
Some of the most favored and the top Identity theft protection services are LifeLock, IdentityForce, Identity Guard, and Complete ID.
Identity theft is a scary thing to happen to anyone. It puts you in an unending fearful and difficult position, and you feel that you won’t be able to get out of it.
But there is nothing to be worried about. Just follow all the precautions and steps above, and learn from the previously happened identity theft examples on what to do and what not to do.
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