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IDTheftReporter.com - Identity Theft and Identity Fraud 101 Identity theft and Identity fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States. Most of the people who have their identities stolen don’t even realize it, sadly, by the time they find out it is to late and their credit has suffered extensive damage that will take many months to fix. The question is what is Identity theft and Identity fraud? Basically, it's when a criminal uses a victim's personal information such as, Social Security Number, credit card accounts, even home address, to commit crimes or fraud using the victim’s name. Identity theft generally takes two forms: “account takeover,” which occurs when the thief uses the victim's existing financial accounts to buy things; and “application fraud,” which is when the thief uses the victim's personal information to create new accounts — or even a whole new life — in the victim's name. Identity theft and Identity fraud is a very costly offense, companies and financial institutions have reported annual losses of over $48 billion – all of which are directly attributable to identity theft expenses, consumers have lost up to $5 billion each year. Experts foresee that Identity theft and Identity fraud will continue to expand as internet usage increases. But, new data shows that 68.2% of Identity theft and Identity fraud happens offline, while only 11.6% of instances occurred online (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/idtheftsurveys.htm ). You can still expose Identity theft and Identity fraud by constantly reviewing and monitoring your financial records on a regular basis – specifically your credit report. If you review your credit report you can uncover unauthorized activity, the same thing goes for credit card and bank statements. The best way to prevent Identity theft and Identity fraud is your own personal watchfulness — protect your credit/debit cards and home computer, use a personal shredder to shred all of your documents that contain classified and personal information and most importantly do not give out any personal information to any un trusted source. |
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