Components Of Identity Theft

Identity theft is a catch-all term for crimes involving illegal usage of another individual's identity. Identity theft may be used to facilitate crimes including illegal immigration, terrorism, and espionage, and it may also be a means of blackmail. ID Theft is a crime in which an impostor obtains key pieces of personal identifying information (PII) such as: social security numbers' driver's license numbers, address, employment, date of birth, etc. and uses them for their own personal gain. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, costing victims over $5 billion annually. According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft complaints are broken down as follows: About 50% reported that a credit card was opened in their name, 25% reported that the thief established new telephone, cellular, or another service in their name, 16% reported that a bank account was opened in their name, or unauthorized withdrawals had been made from their account, 9% reported that the thief obtained a loan in their name, and 8% reported that the thief obtained a fraudulent document such as a driver's license. The major components of identity theft follow.

Social Security

Social security numbers themselves create a special vulnerability. Social security numbers were first issued, in 1935, simply to track earnings and pension benefits. Social security numbers are now used to obtain national identification cards, jobs, open bank accounts, obtain insurance, or to apply for credit and loans. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data especially your social security number, your drivers license, your bank account or credit card number, can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. Sometimes more than one person uses the same social security number, either on purpose or by accident. If someone has misused your social security number or other personal information to create credit or other problems for you, social security cannot resolve these problems. Identity theft is much more than misuse of a social security number-it can also include credit card and mail fraud.

Credit

Credit card fraud is the most common type of identity theft, but is just one type of this fraud. You could be the victim of identity theft, where an imposter is using your personal information to obtain credit. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. As a result, your credit report is likely to contain negative information about your bill-payment history, and your credit score has probably been lowered considerably, making it difficult or impossible to obtain new credit yourself. Credit-rating services gather and disclosure personal and credit information to a wide business client base.

Banking

Banking fraud investigators have long known the importance of multiple phony social security numbers in the commission of bank crimes. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victim’s names. The Secret Service investigates crimes associated with financial institutions, including bank fraud, access device fraud, telecommunications and computer crimes, fraudulent government and commercial securities, and electronic funds transfer fraud.

Insurance

There is a new type of identity theft occurring at startling rates: auto identity theft. Auto identity theft is when thieves go online and find Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) and copy them down. Not only can auto identity theft damage owners of the original VIN (since they can have loan payments for a car that is not theirs), but it can also damage the buyer. Most insurance companies run a credit score to help in the rating process of obtaining all kinds of insurance now. Identity thieves use this information to obtain lower insurance rates, and you will pay higher rates if your identity has been stolen and ruined.

Identity theft is becoming increasingly common and can result in significant damage to your personal and financial credibility and reputation, including for example, damage to financial credit history, difficulty in obtaining student educational or other loans, and poor credit that could impact future job opportunities. Identity theft also has adverse effects on the economy as a whole by making some people feel less confident about engaging in electronic transactions and by increasing the costs to consumers as businesses undertake additional measures to protect customers' personal data from identity thieves.

So What's In Your Credit Report Anyway?

A majority of folks think their credit report just contains a recent list of creditors listing outstanding loan balances and how fast or slow they are at making their payments.

Wrong.

Besides your name, address, date of birth, and social security number, your credit report has all of the following information in it:

• Three to five of the last known addresses you have ever lived and received bills at.
• Aliases or any other nick names or typos you have gone by.
• Your very extended credit history including closed accounts, your payment habits, and maximum credit limits extended to you.
• Notes that may have been filed by you or any of your creditors regarding disputes and or disagreements.
• Information on wage garnishment or liens against any of your assets for what ever reason, and maybe not always valid reasons. This may also include judgments and suits against you.
  
• Past and present employment information.
• Data on how many times your credit file has been looked at, when it was viewed, and by whom.

That's not all. Do you think any of that information may be valuable? That is why even insurance companies are now looking at credit in the form of a score (more to come on that later.) Imagine if either: (A) someone else got a hold of this very private information, or (B) someone else trashed this very valuable information by committing identity theft and fraud against you. Your credit and identity are your financial life blood. If it is getting tainted, you need to know immediately. If it is getting looked at by the wrong people, you need to know immediately. If someone made a mistake when reporting to the credit agencies, you need to know immediately.