With this being Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness month, wanted to bring attention to the many different types of ID theft, how they are committed, and your role in prevention.
When you hear the words Identity Theft, what comes to mind? Stolen information, crime, fraud, ruined credit? Identity theft involves stealing personal information for fraudulent purposes and it occurs to someone each and every day. ID theft comes in many forms including but not limited to:
- Financial: This is the most common type of ID theft. Your stolen information is used by a fraudster to open credit cards, get loans, or make purchases you did not authorize.
- Medical: Using your details for healthcare, prescriptions, or insurance claims.
- Tax Id: This occurs when someone uses your SSN to file a fraudulent tax return so they can get your refund.
- Employment: When a fraudster uses your info to get a job or pass a background check.
- Criminal: Fraudsters sometimes use other people’s personal information when they get arrested. Doing that can lead to you having a criminal record!
- Child ID Theft: There are actually people out there who will use a child’s SSN for credit or benefits purposes. This usually isn’t discovered until years later when the child is older and goes to apply for credit themselves. Sadly, most of the cases of this that I have heard of involve family members.
- Synthetic: This combines real and fake information to create someone a new identity for fraudulent purposes.
- Account Takeover (ATO): Unfortunately, this one is on the rise, especially around the holidays. ATO occurs when a scammer gains unauthorized access to an existing bank, email, or social media account.
- Home Title: Stealing property ownership to take out loans or even sell someone’s home.
- Mail Theft: Seems this one will always be around as long as checks exist and get placed in the mail. Criminals steal mail and look for checks they can then either sell on the dark web, wash (change info on the check like payee and amount), or forge for their profit.
- Insurance Identity Theft: Criminals sometimes file fraudulent auto, life, or disability insurance claims using stolen information.
- Elder: The elderly are so vulnerable to ID theft and scams. Criminals play upon their emotions, possible loneliness, or sense of compassion to exploit the elderly and drain their funds. Romance scams, grandparents’ scams, and financial exploitation are common ways people scam the elderly.
ID theft is committed through data breaches, phishing schemes, skimming credit or debit card information at payment terminals, and stolen mail. You can help prevent becoming a victim by protecting your information. Don’t give out your SSN or any other sensitive info, shred documents instead of just throwing them away, check your mail daily, keep a check on your credit report and bank accounts. You can place a free credit freeze and/or fraud alert by contacting the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion). Be as private as possible, don’t share any unnecessary info online or social media and beware of unsolicited friend/follow requests.
During the Christmas season, and always, let’s try to stay fraud aware! Be safe out there!
